


A Bottle of Exquisite Stuff

by xxoceanswavesxx



Series: The One to Make It Stay [7]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Kitty Section, Lukanette, ml s3 au, ml salt, ml salt fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-26
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:54:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22422919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xxoceanswavesxx/pseuds/xxoceanswavesxx
Summary: Summer is finally over. With school back in full swing, Marinette finds herself more at a loss with new allies, enemies, and wild cards with their own agendas.Sequel to "All the Laughs We Had in the Past".
Relationships: Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: The One to Make It Stay [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1404121
Comments: 114
Kudos: 640





	1. Just Want to Have Fun

_“_ _I'm seemin' to be a little alive. I'm happy again, caught, caught in time.” (Iceblink Luck by Cocteau Twins)_

\---

There’s something sad about the way summer comes and goes in the blink of an eye. How one day, kids are roaming the streets, going to hang out with their friends at the pool, or leaving the city to go on vacation with their parents, only for school to start back up and put an end to all of that. Sometimes, it makes Marinette wonder if she spent her time during summer vacation properly, or if she inadvertently wasted it by accident.

With one day left before school starts, she scrambles to get as much done as possible - helping Kitty Section with their single release, setting up the release party, getting her sabotage-proof materials for school ready, and most importantly of all, preparing herself for an important conversation with Alya.

Ladybug had talked to Alya a couple of times in the past month. But Marinette hadn't spoken to her since the start of summer, and couldn't help but be a little nervous about talking to her again, despite being the one to initiate the meeting.

Her hand wavers over the door to the Cesaire apartment, before she finally taps on it. She can hear footsteps shuffling on the other side, though it takes a moment for the door to open and reveal Alya.

"Hey."

"Hey," Marinette says, returning the greeting. She takes a moment to study Alya before proceeding. Her hair is tied into a neat ponytail with only a few strands hanging loose. The typical flannel and jeans have been swapped out for a pair of burgundy corduroys and a black turtleneck. 

"I'm, uh, trying out new outfits for the first day of school tomorrow," she explains nervously, "What do you think?"

"It's nice," Marinette says, nodding her head. The colors compliment her well, and she seems to be comfortable in it. "Do you have any other contenders?"

"Not yet, but I'm working on it. New year, new me, right?" She laughs, averting her gaze. "Um, would you like to come inside? My mom says it's fine for me to have company now."

"Yeah, I guess that would be best," Marinette says, entering and settling on the couch. A quilted blanket sits behind her back, and looking under the coffee table reveals two pairs of shoes tossed about carelessly, no doubt from Ella and Etta. On the table are drawings of Ladybug, Viperion and Chat Noir.

She bites back a sad look. It had been longer than a month since she and Chat stopped being official partners, but she still hadn't gotten over the actual cutting him from the team. While reconciling the actions of Adrien and Chat, she slowly realized just how much sway he had over her life, without her ever knowing. 

Part of her wonders what might have happened if she continued to pursue Adrien. One night, she brought it up with her mother under a hypothetical situation, and the answer surprised her.

_"You feel tired and confused now, because you're breaking your status quo. This is a person you're used to seeing as a friend, so it's hard to see and believe that you aren't anymore. But in the long term, it'll be easier on you to let go now."_

She turns her gaze away from the paper, only to meet Alya's own curious stare. She glances over the paper and then back to Marinette.

“The girls have been hoping to see the three of them to teamup,” she explains, cleaning the table off and moving the contents to the kitchen counter. “Of course, because of what happened, I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon, or possibly ever. I don’t really have the heart to explain that to them, especially since I…”

She trails off after that, but Marinette knows from the way she averts her gaze that Alya is still blaming herself for everything that unfolded. While it was true that her article emboldened Chat, it was still his choice at the end of the day what he decided to do with that “information”.

“I’m sorry,” she finally says, her voice cracking, “I should have listened to you back then about what I was posting. If I had, we would have avoided so much trouble-”

“Alya.”

“Ladybug would still have the cat miraculous instead of Hawkmoth-”

“ _Alya_.”

“And I never would have gotten into trouble with my parents-”

“ _Alya_!”

She blinks, staring at Marinette. “S-Sorry.”

Sighing, Marinette pats the couch, and Alya follows her gesture. She allows a moment to pass, giving Alya the chance to catch her breath and collect her thoughts together. 

“Let’s try this again. I’ll start first, because I want you to hear what I have to say and understand me, even if you don’t agree.”

\---

She doesn't mince her words as she spells her feelings. To her credit, Alya listens with clear intent and never interrupts to justify herself. The awkwardness of the matchmaking schemes, the blatant Lila favoritism, the dismissiveness she faced when things didn't go according to plan, how Alya acted as if Luka dating her wasn't real and how upset he had been with hearing that, she spared no details. When she was done, she lets out a sigh.

"I don't care if you disagree with me about something," she clarifies, "But I _do_ care when you ignore what I have to say because you don't like it. You called me out before when I went too far, and I appreciate it because things could have gotten bad. But I'm not always wrong, and you're not always right."

A silence falls over them, as she allows the weight of her words to sink into Alya's mind. At first, it looks as though she's absolutely still, but then Marinette notices her exhaling small breaths from her mouth.

"Marinette, I'm sorry," she says, "All this time, I thought I was helping you try to get along with Adrien and Lila better. But maybe I was just doing it for me, to prove I was a good friend instead of being one. I was busy being Team Adrinette and Lilanette when I should have been Team _Mari_ nette. If you let me, I'd like to stay on that team."

She can't help the small grin that forms on her face. "Well, I might have to keep you as a bench warmer or water girl for a little while, see how you get along with the rest of the team. But I'd be happy to have you back."

There are no other words as the two girls exchange a brief hug. She can hear Alya sniffle, but just as quickly as it comes, it disappears. Her eyes are watery but Alya is smiling, putting the brightness of the sun to shame.

As she pulls away, there's still a question lingering in the back of her mind.

"Not to make this weird or anything, but what do you plan on doing with the Ladyblog?"

"I'm already working on that," she says, a small glint sparkling in her eyes, "I'm starting with a post to fully explain the hiatus, as well as recapping stuff I missed during the summer. And then I have to correct previous posts, especially the ones about Chloe and Lila." There's a bit of a snarl as she says that last part. "I can't believe I let myself believe her. She's nothing but an opportunist. I'll make sure she gets what she deserves."

"Woah there," Marinette says, tapping her shoulder, "I'm glad you're finally seeing the truth here, but exposing Lila shouldn't be our top priority here."

Alya looks a bit perplexed by this, as though she didn't expect to hear that. "But she's been lying to so many people and has been getting away with it. The people deserve to know."

"I know. That's why Juleka and Rose told everyone about Prince Ali," she points out, "But you've already been dealing with scandals, haven't you? Do you really want your first major post back to focus on how much of a liar Lila is, or how you're going to improve and make the blog better?"

Alya sighs. "Yeah, I get it. But I feel like we're letting her get away with it."

"I want to stop her too," Marinette says, "But we need to be sneaky about it. People believed her lies without question before, they could do it again. Plus, with how Ms. Bustier and Mr. Damocles handle bullying, I want to be thorough. That's why I'm bringing in a secret weapon."

Her eyes light up at this. "Tell me everything."

Marinette shakes her head. "It has to remain secret for now. Hopefully, I won't end up needing it, and Lila and Chloe keep to themselves, but I'm not taking any chances."

"Oh, that's right, I keep forgetting about Chloe," Alya scowls, crossing her arms over her chest. "I can't believe how nonchalant she and her dad have been acting about losing an entire miraculous. Do they not realize just how critical things are looking right now?"

News reports covering Miracle Queen's successful capture of the miraculous had been nonstop, and the discussions were relentless. Still, when pressured to talk about his daughter's actions, and what he planned to do in the event of future attacks, the Mayor refused to say a single word on the topic.

"I'd rather not think about Chloe," she says quietly, "I've had more than enough of her for five years."

Alya nods, looking away and allowing Marinette a moment to sigh and contemplate. Chloe could only be blamed for so much, especially since she did appear to be somewhat guilty over Hawkmoth's victory. But then she flashes back to Chloe mocking her, sabotaging her present and getting her in trouble with their teacher, and being cruel to countless others, and Marinette can't find it in herself to feel that bad for her.

"But Marinette, everyone will have to know the truth about my Lila posts soon," Alya points out, changing the subject, "So what should I do?"

"Well, personally, I would just leave those posts as under review, and explain that you have new leads that might prove the posts as false," she hums, "Really, you should focus on addressing the confession video."

Her eyes widen before averting her gaze. "Yes... you're right. I'm sorry, I got so caught up in stopping Lila from hurting other people, I lost track of fixing my mistakes. Thanks, Mari."

She shrugs, giving her a smile, "It's a team effort."

\--

Suddenly, the rest of the day feels a lot more cheerful. Something about knowing that things were going to work out with Alya made her actually excited for the new school year. They weren't likely to be in the same class at this point, but they always had lunch and time after school to catch up. 

Her phone pings, receiving a message from Max, of all people.

_Max: Hello, Marinette. Hope your summer vacation has been going well. I was wondering if you would be interested in testing my game today?_

Oof, today of all days, just as she's wondering back to the studio to set up for the livestream and party. It had been Rose's idea to do an hour long show leading up to their launch, mostly to create some buzz to get people to check out the single.

Still, she hadn't had much time to play games lately, and with the school year starting soon, it would have been a nice final hurrah before summer ended.

Sending a quick text to Luka, she receives a response that puts her at ease.

_Luka: yeah, that'd be cool. He can set it up for after the show and we can just chill._

She alerts Max right away and rushes to get over to the studio as soon as possible.

\--

The studio entrance is decorated with streamers and a giant banner that reads "1st Single Release Party!!" A poster for the single, called "Mellowmade" hangs on the door to the recording studio. It pictures an empty pitcher on a kitchen table, sunlight barely peaking through the window. Four empty cups with cartoon versions of each band member printed on them sit in front it, taking up the center. 

Sitting in the lounge are Penny and Vivica, both donning Kitty Section shirts in blue and purple respectively. Ruby enters the room, wearing a shirt in pink and carrying some equipment for the stream, something she nearly forgets when she sees Marinette.

"Oh, hey, Marinette," she squeaks, nearly dropping the equipment to cover her mouth. When she calms down, she sighs. "Sorry. Would you mind giving me a hand for a minute? I need to finish setting up for the livestream, and then prep the rest of the room for the party."

"Sure," she says, putting her stuff down and following Ruby to the lounge. With the furniture rearranged and the unused equipment moved to another part of the studio, the lounge is much more roomy. The other half of the room has a plain table, along with the tv and the setup for video games. Another, longer table with a white tablecloth sits outside, presumably for the food that's supposed to be coming in later that evening.

"Alright, I just need you to sit on the couch for a moment so I can test the camera," Ruby sighs, setting up the tripod. Fiddling with some of the settings, she removes the lens cap and focuses in on Marinette. "Can you go ahead and make a face for me? Anything will do."

Marinette sticks out her tongue, laughing as she does, and a giggle escapes from Ruby. The tense look on her face disappears and she looks more serene and relaxed.

A message from Max breaks her from her trance, and she rushes downstairs to greet him and get him settled in.

\--

Half an hour passes, with Marinette giving Max a brief tour of the studio before returning to the lounge area and showing him the set-up. Just as they re-enter the room, she spots a tired Ruby sighing and settling down on a chair, fighting back a yawn.

"Oh my god, Ruby, I'm so sorry," Marinette gasps, "I can't believe I forgot you needed my-"

"It's alright," she insists, "I was able to check and see that the camera works as intended, and that put me at ease. Everything else is nearly done."

She nods, but doesn't take much joy from the answer. It's part of Ruby's job, sure, but it still feels bad to leave her to deal with all of it alone. Hopefully, Jagged and Penny are able to hire on more interns and staff to take care of things behind the scenes, especially now that they have two acts signed to the label.

There isn't much time to contemplate over that though. Everyone files into the room, Marinette, Vivica and Max being ushered to the party side, Ruby manning the camera with Penny and Jagged at her side, and the entirety of Kitty Section sitting down on the couch, waiting to greet the stream. 

Rose is practically bouncing in her seat, giddy with excitement. Juleka is busy primping her hair, looking a bit nervous about the whole ordeal, strategically sitting between Rose and Luka. Knowing Luka, he had already done his meditation to calm his nerves, so while a bit anxious, he'd be fine with Rose leading the group. If she hadn't known Ivan, she would think he was irritated by the whole ordeal, but in actuality, he was just as nervous as Juleka. 

"Alright," Ruby calls out, getting everyone's attention, "Starting in five, four, three, two... go!"

When she gives the thumbs up, all four of them start waving at the camera, with Rose the first to greet the audience. "Hi everyone! We're Kitty Section, and welcome to our first single release livestream!"

The four of them all applaud, with Luka popping a streamer, much to everyone's delight.

"In one hour, the first single off our EP will be dropping online!" She continues, "The music video for it will be out sometime after that, but we thought it would be more fun to end summer with a livestream before school starts again!"

Max pulls out her phone, showing her the feed as the show goes on. Since it just started, there isn't a crazy amount of people online to see it, but there are comments flooding in from fans about how happy they are to hear the song, and how they couldn't wait to for the EP to drop. 

The stream continues with everyone introducing themselves as well as talking about the single, and what it meant to them. That's the part of the show where everyone's eyes light up, especially as they discuss the creative process and why they decided to make such a sad song in the first place. They don't dwell on that last part for too long though, as Rose is quick to introduce everyone to a game for the last half of the show.

"We're going to play Two Truths and a Lie!" she cheers, "I think we're all familiar with this game, right?"

Everyone looks at each other and nods, though Marinette catches the slightest smirk exchanged between brother and sister.

"We have two special guests who are going to join us for this game," Luka says, gesturing off-camera. Pulling up their seats, Jagged and Vivica take their places on either side of the couch, much to Marinette's surprise. "This right here," he says, gesturing to the right, "Is Vivica. She's signed to the same label as us, and also has a single coming out soon."

She gives a pleasant wave, "Hi everyone! I'm so proud of these four. They've come so far, and I'm excited to work with them in the future!"

There's a flood of comments in the chat, most of them calling her the mom friend or the cool big sister to the group. Notably, there are quite a few comments gushing about how pretty she is, as well as comments congratulating her on getting signed.

"And I think everyone is familiar with our mentor, Jagged Stone," Luka continues, gesturing to the left.

“It’s good to be here,” he says, giving the armrest a pat, “I’m proud of all my rock stars and the time they’ve put in to make their killer songs. Tonight’s song might be a bit different from what you’re expecting, but it still gets me everytime I hear it.”

Understandably, more comments come in, heralding Jagged as “Uncle” or “Dad,” and how happy they are to see him doing so well after the split from his previous label and manager. Plenty of them are just happy to see him on a livestream, something that he never would have done before.

“Now with introductions out of the way, who would like to start our game first?” Rose asks, “Vivica? How about you?”

“Um, sure I guess,” she says, adjusting herself in her seat, “Let’s see… okay, which one of these is a lie? I can speak three languages, my family is all from Spain, or I can play the flute?”

“Hm,” Rose purses her lips, looking to everyone else for a potential answer. No one else seems to be certain, so she takes a stab at the answer, “You can’t play flute?”

“I can actually,” she says with a laugh, “No, I have family in quite a few countries. Martinique, Spain, Brazil, Ghana, and now, France. We’re a bit of a worldly bunch, my family.”

“And what languages do you speak?”

“English, French and Spanish.”

“You know, they call that a triple threat,” Jagged says, “Can you say something for us?”

In each of her three languages, she says, “My favorite color is purple,” “Yesterday, I had the best soup in a restaurant downtown,” and “I’m sad that summer is almost over,” much to everyone’s delight. This time, she receives comments begging her to record songs in some of her other languages, curious to hear her range.

“That’s fantastic!” Rose cheers, “Well, since no one got that right, I think our other special guest should get to go next. Jagged?”

He gives a nod, along with a smirk that’s awfully similar to the ones that Juleka and Luka exchanged earlier. Whatever it is they had been planning earlier, Marinette was about to see it come to fruition.

"I’m allergic to non-organic flour, cats, and coffee."

She covers her mouth as her jaw drops. 

Rose is much more an actress than Marinette ever thought to give her credit for. She looks about the room with a long, contemplative look on her face, her nose scrunched up to the point of threatening permanent wrinkles. Ivan is stony-faced as ever, and both Couffaines exchange a sly look with one another, biting back their smirks. 

“Gee, I don’t know,” Rose says quietly, “Was it…cats?”

“Ah, yes. Very good,” Jagged says, giving her a round of applause, “I can’t handle certain coffee beans. Not really sure why. It just means I have to live in a world where I have to wake up without making it. My pastries can only be made with organic flour, or else I’ll have problems breathing. But cats? Was always more of a dog person myself, so I’ve never had one, but they’re alright.”

By this point, even Max is losing his composure, and has caught on to the true scheme. Luka knew she had been worrying about what could potentially unfold with Lila going forward, and the rest of Kitty Section was onboard with stopping that. With access to Jagged and a big enough audience, they planned in advance a moment where Jagged could clear the air without bringing it entirely out of left field, or directly addressing Lila herself. In all likelihood, judging by his reactions, Jagged had been well-aware of the plan in advance.

It was brilliant, really. Lila had no real way of knowing that it had all been planned. She could accuse all she wanted, but seeds of doubt had already been planted when Rose exposed her “connection” to Ali. And with Alya planning to question her posts on her friendship with Ladybug, a lot less people would be willing to give Lila the time of day, all without Marinette having direct say or involvement on all of it.

The rest of the stream goes well enough, but Marinette can barely pay attention to it. Rather, she keeps her eye on the comments, though nothing unusual pops up. Before she knows it, they’re ready to sign off and get the party started, Max being all too eager to set up his game.

“Now,” he explains, “I’m not submitting this game for serious play or anything. I just need to check and see if the controls work as intended and if it’s easy enough to play. Hence, I ended up using akumas as the characters you control. I realized about halfway through some of you may take offense to that, but I just needed characters I could test and use in the game proper.”

No one looks particularly offended, although Ruby has a rather contemplative look on her face. “You could always treat it as an alternative universe. You know, where the akumas are actually good guys?”

“Yeah,” Juleka points out, “Nathaniel used his own akuma identity as a hero in his comics. If you’re not planning on publishing or selling it, it shouldn’t be a big deal.”

“Hm, interesting concepts,” Max muses, “I’ll have to consider them. For now, who would like to be the first to try it out?”

Ivan and Rose are the first ones to pick up controllers, picking Horrificator and Reflekta respectively. Everyone is too preoccupied with the game, so Marinette takes the time to pull Luka out of the room to talk to him.

“What did you think of our stream?” he asks, a sparkly look in his eye.

“It was great,” she says slowly.

“You don’t sound too sure.”

“No, I mean it. It’s just… you exposed Lila’s lie.”

He nods slowly. “Yes.”

“You didn’t set up a stream only for that, did you?”

“Of course not,” Luka says, patting her shoulder, “We had to do single promotion regardless, and we wanted our audience to know us a bit better. Rose had the idea to bring in both Jagged and Vivica, and since Jagged already knew about Lila, we all agreed to the plan. We didn’t want her to even think about giving you a hard time this year. Think of it less like revenge, and more like insurance.” 

So just as she suspected, then. She releases a sigh of relief so loud, she can’t help but blush, especially as Luka laughs.

“That’s… surprisingly devious of all of you,” she says, “But are you sure you’re alright with it? I mean, Lila might paint a target on all of our backs now.”

“She messes with one of us, she messes with all of us,” he points out, “That’s the message we’re sending to her, all without the glory of her being mentioned by name.”

Without further argument, she leads him back into the room, enjoying the rest of the night, as well as playing Max’s game. Part of her realizes her worries come from Adrien’s advice he gave her all those months ago.

 _Adrien_. She’s spent so much time worrying over him, and even now, his words have caused her worry over what she’ll look like trying to defend herself.

But his words don’t matter anymore. They aren’t friends, and she doesn’t have to worry about keeping the peace for his sake. She didn’t have to stand up alone anymore, and she didn’t have to worry about being challenged for doing so. 

Tomorrow could have brought about anything, but she was more than ready to face it.


	2. Just Want to Have Friends I

For years, the end of summer only brought dread and pain in the form of Chloe Bourgeois. Going to school felt more like going to prison for a crime she wasn't sure what she committed. That changed when hope came to her in the form of Alya and Tikki, and turning Chloe into one of the least of her problems.

_ Temporarily. _

This year, though, she wasn't taking any chances, and she would not be laying down to let defeat walk all over her. She convinced her mom to invest in backpack with special reinforcement in the straps, making it theft-proof. It was black, plain and unassuming at first, but she was able to spice it up and make it much more her style with a bit of decorating.

That was only one step though. With a bit of sculpting, Marinette was able to make the Surveillance Stuff cameras look more like stickers for her locker, which would catch any unsuspecting intruder off-guard. Since Jagged ended up getting spare sets, she was able to make versions for every member of Kitty Section, in case of retaliation on Lila's part.

There had also been Marianne's request to make a lock-box for her research materials. That had taken priority over almost everything else, since her great-grandson would be days before school started. 

Projects consumed her through the month of August. With the single release party, designing art for the EP, the Surveillance Stuff disguises, Marianne's lockbox, and on top of all of that, patrolling the city to keep an eye on suspiciously low akuma activity, Marinette barely had enough time to create one of the new outfits she designed. 

Still, it was worth every moment of nearly stabbing herself using the machine, and every minute of sleep she lost to create it. She wore a baby pink ribbed sweater with a tulle black skirt and leggings. Repurposing a pair of black boots, she added a small gold chain at the top, and topped everything off with a denim jacket. A few details from the original design were missing, but she could save that for another day. With everything set-up, it was time to put her plan in motion.

Lunch would be at her place today, so she picked up a croissant, fresh from the oven, and a box of macaroons to offer her new classmates.

"Leaving so soon, honey?" Her father asks, taking a sip of his coffee, "You still have another twenty minutes."

Checking her phone one last time, she smiles as her app pulls up, stuffing a portable charger into her backpack. "I figured I would start the new school year off right. I'll see you guys later."

Just as she steps out the door, she receives a message, and opens the screen to check it.

_ Luka: Have a great day! One more year, and you're in the big leagues. _

With a laugh, she sends her response.

_ Mari: Thanks! Best of luck with the big leagues :) _

\--

As expected, the halls are still quiet, and few students have actually arrived. She slips into the locker room, nearly forgetting that her new locker is on the other side of the room. She considers it one of the many perks of being in Mendeleiev's class this year.

Of course, one of the downsides is that she has no idea who her locker neighbors are going to be. It's typically done in alphabetical order, which meant that Ivan and Juleka would be somewhere close-by to her, at least. 

Upon entering the locker room, however, she's more confused than ever. It seems that during the summer, an entire overhaul of the room had been done. Where there used to be 13 lockers in each row, there are now 8, and they are much bigger. One set is across the wall, while the next two sets sit in the middle of the floor, separated by some wooden benches. It presumably continues this setup to allow just enough lockers for everyone in the school.

It's a strange arrangement to say the least, but she doesn't complain as she opens the door to her locker and gets to work. There's a total of six cameras, so she needs to place them strategically. The ones on the inside of the door are the easiest to place, sitting among a collage of her friends and favorite designs. The next two she places at the bottom, where no one was likely to look. The last two she attaches on the front of the top shelf, sitting on either side of a neatly printed name tag in her own signature.

"Wow, Marinette, your locker looks so pretty," Rose squeals, pouncing on her shoulder.

"Thanks," she says, holding the door open a bit more, "I have to say, the extra space is nice."

"Too bad it's because of Mayor Bourgeois," Ivan mutters under his breath, "Something about a last minute donation."

Frowning, she nods her head in realization. Though the mayor refused to acknowledge the Miracle Queen incident verbally, his large sums in donations seemed to indicate that he was well-aware of how things looked for him. The locker room, which no one expected to be updated, was just another sign of that. Although in this case, Marinette wouldn't have been surprised if it was more of a bribe to keep Chloe in the school.

"Excuse me, you're in the way of my locker."

"Oh, I'm-"

Staring at the boy in question, she nearly drops her stuff on the ground, thinking she's seeing Adrien. It takes one glance over at the stranger to realize that this isn't the case. For one, he's a few centimeters taller, only a bit shorter than Ivan. His facial features are also sharper compared to Adrien's rounded face, as well as a lighter shade of green eyes.

"-sorry."

"Is it common around here for people to stare like you do?"

"Sorry, I thought you were someone else."

"I get that quite often. It seems some things never change. Now, if you would, my locker?"

"Oh, right," she says, scattering to put everything away into her locker and close it. Rose and the other pull her aside, eyeing the new boy in curiosity.

"I didn't think we'd be getting any new students," she whispers, looking about the room. "I heard around a quarter of the school transferred out after what happened last year. Most people think our school is an akuma magnet."

There's no disagreeing with that. Minus herself, everyone in Bustier's class had been akumatized at least once by now. And including Bustier herself, most of their cases had something to do with Chloe. With blatant favoritism in her favor, it was only a matter of time before something drastic like this happened. Marinette isn't even sure how both Bustier and Mendeleiev's classes are full.

The locker is starting to get crowded, so the group decides to make their way to class, but not without Marinette shooting Alya a wave. It takes her a moment to recognize the gesture before returning it with a small smile.

"Ooh," Rose says, poking Marinette's shoulder, "Are you and Alya on speaking terms again?"

"Yeah. We talked through some things yesterday, and I think things are going to work out.

"Sounds nice," Juleka hums, although with one quick glance, Marinette can tell she's not entirely convinced. 

"Something bothering you?"

"It's nice she made up with you, I'm just a bit wary though. Isn't she still friends with Lila?"

"I don't think so," Marinette hums, "I'll explain more later."

Filing into the classroom, the four of them take their seats in the back, with Rose and Juleka sitting at the desk on the right, Marinette sitting across from them, and Ivan sitting at the desk behind her. 

Being in the back wasn't so bad when she at least had her friends with her and she got to decide where she wanted to sit.

A few familiar faces start to enter the room. Aurore, Mireille and Colette are all expected, but she's surprised to see Max without Kim in tow. All of them settle in the front of the room, with seats slowly starting to fill up, including Felix, who takes the seat directly next to Ivan. Her own seatmate turns out to be Marc, who looks slightly sad that he doesn't have the back all to himself. 

Just before the bell rings, an irritated Kagami enters the class, taking the last seat in the front, followed by Mendeleiev. She takes one look at the class and frowns.

"Good morning class," she greets tentatively. After the class returns the greeting, she hums in contemplation, "I'm glad to see all of you settled into your seats without having to be told twice. However, I think a few seat changes are in order.”

No one holds back on the groans, despite Mendeleiev’s stern looking face. A few people even look ready to complain, when she clears her throat and silences them with one look.

“Should you prove to be productive in class and work well, I will allow a seat change in the middle of the year and allow you to sit with whoever you want. But you must earn my trust for that.”

It’s not ideal, but at least there was  _ some  _ consideration for the students, unlike allowing them to choose without any of them there. Both Marinette and Juleka are summoned to the front of the room, although not at the same desk. Juleka is placed at the seat closest to the door, while Marinette gets an aisle seat at the next desk over. Aurore is given the aisle seat at Juleka’s desk.

“Ms. Tsurugi,” Mendeleiev calls out, “You will be sitting next to Ms. Dupain-Cheng.”

A knot forms at the bottom of her stomach. The last time she interacted with Kagami had been the double date at the ice skating rink, where she made it clear that she intended to pursue Adrien, something that Marinette would rather have forgotten about. It’s clear as day that Kagami hasn’t however, as she has a rather displeased look on her face as she takes the window seat.

The rest of the seating arrangement goes without further incident. Rose ends up behind Aurore, sitting with a boy named Elias. Felix and Wayhem sit in the row behind Marinette, followed by Colette and Marc, with Ivan in the last row by himself. On the other side of the room, Max sits in the third row along with Mireille, with the last row being filled by two boys she’s seen around, Joshua and Robin. 

Pleased with the arrangement, Mendeleiev gets around to starting the class.

\--

"...but there's this one guy who's kind of an assh- er, jerk," Luka remarks, pushing his finished bowl of vegetable soup away. Mr. Lavilliant takes it with him back to the kitchen, after being thanked for a delicious meal. "He goes around, giving people nicknames and then brushes it off as 'a joke.' Like he called me pretty boy, and when I told him that I was already seeing someone and he wasn't my type, he got all defensive."

Juleka couldn't hide her giggle at that. "You probably roasted him without meaning to."

"...Again?" He sighs, "I guess when you put it that way... ugh, now I feel like an idiot."

"It still sucks though," Rose scowls, "Why do there have to be so many mean people out there? Chloe, Bob Roth, XY, this new guy, and let's not forget Hawkmoth!"

"I don't know if 'mean' is the word I would use to describe Hawkmoth," Juleka mumbles.

"But like, what kind of person akumatizes a baby?"

"Twice," Luka adds, "Three if you count Scarlet Gigantitan."

"He also akumatized the little girl I babysit," Marinette points out, "Not to mention Alya's little sisters."

"Oh my god, he must really hate kids," Rose gapes, "I hope he doesn't have one of his own."

Marinette tried to imagine what Hawkmoth's family must have been like. Were they aware of what he was doing, or worse, helping him? And what of Gabriel Agreste? Whether he was Hawkmoth or merely an accessory, how could be okay with his own son being akumatized?

"There's something up with that new kid, Felix," Ivan says, folding his arms over his chest, "He was staring at Marinette a lot, like he was trying to figure something out."

She frowns. "Funny that he called  _ me _ out for doing that."

"Maybe he recognized you from somewhere," Rose offers.

"Or maybe you have some competition," Juleka says, staring at her brother. This earns her an eyebrow raise and an unamused frown.

"Oh, trust me, there's no competition," Marinette says, reaching over to grab his hand, "You can say he's charmed me with his Snake Eyes."

A tinge of pink crosses Luka's cheeks, as he looks away. The two girls share a look of scandalous awe, before either of them are able to comment.

"Luka, are you and Marinette trying to come up with more sickingly sweet pet names and compliments than us?" Rose asks, "Because that's  _ our _ thing and I'm afraid we'll have to crush both of you."

It takes him a moment to respond, his cheeks still flushed from the comment. "Feel free to try."

Ivan and Marinette can only laugh as the debate rages on, enjoying the rest of their peaceful meal.

\--

She's confused upon returning to school, seeing Marianne talk to a fascinated Alya. Tentatively, she approaches the two, but neither seems to notice her.

"That's so cool!" Alya gushes, "I didn't know it was possible to have a career studying hero mythology! Will you be publishing any of your findings?"

"Well, it depends on what I end up finding," she explains, "Sometimes, your findings are only worth an article, and other times it's worth publishing a book."

A knot forms in her stomach. Marianne? Publish her findings? Hopefully, she would know better than to publish information that Hawkmoth could get his hands on. Without further thought, she hurries over to join the conversation.

"Oh, hi Mari- um,  _ ma'am _ ," she says, clearing her throat, "Nice weather, we're having, huh?"

If she weren't so worried about what Marianne was about to give away, Marinette would fling herself at a wall for how unnatural she sounded then and there.

"Oh, are you Ms. Alya's friend?" She greets, ignoring Marinette's panic, "She's an interesting girl, you know. Asking me all sorts of questions. Unfortunately, I can't give away all of my secrets," she says with a wink.

It takes her a moment to realize, but when Marinette is aware of her true intent, she nods and smiles.

"Anyway, I hope the two of you have a lovely day. Please be kind to my great-grandson if you see him, it's his first day in a new school. I believe he's in his last year before lycee."

Her eyes widen for a second. Marianne hadn't mentioned him coming to  _ this _ school. And more importantly, there had only been one new student in their year, which meant-

"Oh, Felix! There you are!"

She gasps as she comes across the stony-faced blonde. Just how long had he been standing there, and how didn't she notice him?

" _ Grand-Mère _ ," he greets, "come to spy on me while I'm at school, have you? You're even gossiping about me to strangers."

"Oh, Felix, don't be so silly. I was only passing by."

“You're not even trying to hide the truth, are you?"

There was something about his tone of voice that made Marinette want to get away. She tugs on Alya's sleeve.

"Hey, can you come with me to the bathroom for a moment?" She hopes her voice doesn't sound too desperate.

"Uh, sure I-"

"Okay, ma'am, have a nice day!" She calls out, dragging Alya away from the pair. When they're a safe enough distance away, she lets out a sigh of relief. "That was close."

"What was close?" Alya asks, "And how do you know that lady?"

"No, I don't."

"You almost called her Marianne."

Sighing, she looks about the hallway before explaining. "She asked me to make something for her over the summer. But she wanted me to be secretive about it. I think it's about her research materials."

Alya hums at the response. "That's pretty weird. Even weirder that she's related to Adrien's cousin."

"...Adrien's  _ who _ ?"

"Yeah, that guy, Felix? Adrien was talking to us earlier, saying that he was happy his cousin was finally here, going to the same school with him. Although, he seemed pretty sad when Felix said to stop embarrassing himself in front of his friends."

Somehow, without even knowing Felix that well, Marinette can imagine him saying that.

Clearing her throat, Alya looks a bit uneasy. "Um, speaking of Adrien, there was something I meant to tell you the other day and completely forgot."

Biting the corners of her mouth, she nods, suspecting she already knows what’s coming. “What is it?”

“Well, uh, it turns out that Adrien overheard our conversation at the museum. He pretended to be a statue, trying to play a prank on us, and only told Nino and me about it recently. Mari, I’m sorry-”

“You don’t have to apologize for that,” she says, shaking her head, “I wish that  _ Adrien  _ would have said something, especially considering that by then, I was already dating someone else. But I can forgo that bit of closure.”

“...You’re not mad at me for not being discreet? I mean, even Nino found out because I said something.”

“I’m not mad,” she says, planting a hand on her shoulder. “Thank you for telling me the truth.”

A moment of peace and quiet settles over the two. There’s no juggling who she does and doesn’t know in front of people, no feeling that she’s being secretly watched by someone she hardly knows, and that things were going run much more smoothly for that school year.

And then she hears that high-pitched gasp that could make babies cry.

“Oh,  _ Adrien _ , I would just  _ love  _ to hang out at your place!” 

Peering into Bustier’s class, she can see as clear as day, Lila once again cuddling up to Adrien, poking him with her finger.

“I-I guess you can come over for a little while, just to see the place,” Adrien mumbles, “But I don’t think that my dad will approve of me having company over. He’s been kind of strict lately.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” she says, “I have that all figured out.”

_ No wonder he was so pushy in his flirtations. He doesn’t know he can get others to back off of him. _

“Ugh, she’s only hanging out with him because the rest of us won’t give her the time of day,” Alya scowls, “She had the nerve to try and ask me for help with homework after she basically abandoned me for the summer. I told her that I wanted nothing to do with her, and she gave me the worst stink eye you can imagine.”

_ It can’t be worse than the one Chat gave Viperion, but it might just take second place. _

“She might try to go after you now,” Marinette warns her, “She threatened me last time I tried to call her out on her lies.”

Alya regards her with a wide glance. “She  _ threatened  _ you?”

She gapes, realizing she still hadn’t told Alya that part yet. However, the bell is about to ring, much to her relief, and as bad as she feels for Adrien, she would rather get herself as far away from Bustier’s class than have to watch Lila flirt with him more. “I’ll tell you more later after school. Meet me out front?”

Sighing, Alya says, “Okay.”

\--

She’s not expected at the studio today, only having some personal projects waiting at home, along with submitting her application to the Gauguin Institute. Despite that, she had all the time in the world to wait for Alya.

“I’ll catch up to you guys later,” Marinette says, waving goodbye to Rose and the others, “See you tomorrow!”

Bustier’s class takes a bit longer to let out than normal, so Marinette settles down on the steps of the school, taking her phone

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” Felix says, nearly making her drop her phone, “You know, we never got to finish our conversation earlier.”

“Ugh, do you find it fun to give people you hardly know heart attacks?” she grumbles, standing up merely so it doesn’t feel like he’s towering over her. It doesn’t help that he stands with his shoulders back, accentuating his height. “Alright, what can I help you with?”

“Ah, I wish more people were so eager to help as you,” he says, briefly flashing what must have been the most unnerving smirk she’s ever seen. “No doubt, you are aware of this school’s reputation as the akuma school, correct?”

“Everyone is kind of aware of that,” she points out, “It’s kind of hard not to be.”

“Yes, well, having both Chloe and a supervillain around made that inevitable. It seems that she hasn’t changed from when we were younger.”

_ This  _ catches her attention. “Were you… friends with her?”

“Not really,” he yawns, “Adrien was though, so I had to play nice and tolerate her. But enough about me. I’m more interested in  _ you _ ,” he says, folding his hands behind his back, “Since the beginning of last year, people in this city have been getting akumatized, for reasons both justified and petty.”

“...And?”

“That’s the interesting part, Marinette,” he clucks his tongue, “In my investigations into the student body, I have found that every student that had been a part of Ms. Bustier’s class last year has been akumatized, with quite a few being related to Chloe. Let me see if I remember all of them,” he hums, looking up at the sky, “Stoneheart. Dark Cupid. Princess Fragrance. Reflekta. Vanisher. Lady Wifi. Evillustrator. Zombiezou. Horrificator. Timebreaker. That’s quite the bunch, and that’s just from what used to be  _ your  _ class.

“Despite that,  _ you  _ of all people haven’t been akumatized, least of all by Chloe. Despite having the most reason to be.”

Slowly, her arms cross themselves over her chest.  _ Where is he going with this? _

“What are you talking about?”

“You know exactly what I’m getting at. You’ve been the target of Chloe’s harassment for nearly half a decade. She tried to sabotage your chances at winning class rep. She ruined your birthday present for Ms. Bustier, and then was given credit for it. You even threw a party for her saving the city as Queen Bee, despite her endangering people in the first place, and she thanked you by refusing to change.”

She’s stunned by just how detailed of an account it is. “How exactly do you know all of that?”

“Oh, quite a few people were willing to talk to me about it,” he shrugs, “I think they took pity on the fact that I was the new kid, but they likely also wanted to talk to the cousin of  _ the  _ Adrien Agreste.”

"And why exactly do you want to know all of this anyway?" Marinette asks, "You're awfully suspicious of someone you hardly know."

At this point, the students of Bustier's class start to file out of the school. It's only then when she notices a quiet Kagami standing in front of the door, face contorting with anger at the sight of Lila hanging off of Adrien, trying to chat up a storm.

Alya and Nino are in tow, with Nino trying to get in between Lila and Adrien, while a resigned Alya makes her way over to Marinette.

"Sorry I'm late," she sighs, "Ms. Bustier wanted to give all of us a big speech about friendship and getting along together. Mostly, I think she was just telling people to get along with Chloe."

To an extent, Marinette could understand the speech. While Miracle Queen was responsible for the loss of Plagg, she was still being manipulated by Hawkmoth. And enough people in Paris went through that to know it would be hypocritical to hold it against Chloe, at least until a certain extent.

However, that was also ignoring Chloe's behavior, past and present, as well as the Mayor's refusal to acknowledge the incident or do anything meaningful to make things better. News footage of university students protesting were persisting for a reason.

"Ah, yes, Chloe was in need of another enabler," Felix retorts, "At first, I was disappointed that I wouldn't get to observe the Akuma Incubator in action, but perhaps it'll maintain my sanity in the long run."

The girls look at each other. "Akuma...Incubator?"

"Well, technically, there are  _ two _ of them..." he continues, his voice getting lower, and his expression unreadable. For a moment, he remains quiet, before shaking his head. "Enough about that. The two of you hold more of my interest by far."

"Both of us are already seeing someone," Alya points out.

"Oh, my apologies. That's not quite what I meant," he says with a small laugh. It sounds like he practiced it in front of a mirror for an hour. "My interest is more...  _ intellectual _ lets say."

It doesn't take long for her to put two and two together. He thinks she might have something to do with Marianne's secret research, and he's looking for answers. But she needs more confirmation as to his reasons, so she waits and listens.

"The infamous Ladyblogger. I've been following you for quite some time. I'll admit some of your more recent content has been... frivolous, and that's putting it quite lightly. But it's painted quite the picture of this city."

"Fair enough," Alya snaps, "Then what about Marinette?"

"Oh, there's a lot to work with there," he hums, "Let me see. Friends with the Ladyblogger. A personal victim of Chloe's... being herself. Took Chloe's spot as class representative. The great grandniece of infamous chef, Wang Chang. Designed for my uncle, the infamous Gabriel Agreste, as well as rock star Jagged Stone and his protege group, Kitty Section. Is classmates and friends with three of those members, and if my deductions are correct, is currently dating the fourth member, one Luka Couffaine. But most importantly, you are the sole member of the akuma class to never have been akumatized. Now, I don't know about you, but I find that fascinating. And now, I can propose the question I meant to ask earlier before you arrived, Alya Cesaire; how exactly  _ is _ that?"

_ How exactly is it that you know all of that? Even if you stalked my social media profiles, there’s no way that all of that stuff is so readily available for you to see. So who exactly did you talk to that gave you all this information? _

Thank god for Alya, because Marinette finds her voice caught in her throat, and her mind frozen trying to think of an explanation.

"It sounds like you're accusing her of something. How about you spit it out?"

"I'm not accusing her of anything. I'm merely curious."

At this point, she's recovered, and knows just what to say. "I've been targeted before, twice actually. Once ended with Ms. Bustier being akumatized instead. The other time, I had a friend tell me that if I could find a solution to my problem, the akuma wouldn't get the best of me."

For once, both Felix and Alya share an intrigued expression, their thoughts entirely obvious.

"Interesting theory. Now tell me, were these instances caused by Chloe?"

"The first time, yes. The second time..."

"That was because of Lila, wasn't it?" Alya asks, air barely in her voice as she does.

She nods meagerly.

As Alya scowls, Felix quirks an eyebrow. “Lila Rossi, I presume? Wasn’t she that girl that proclaimed to be best friends with Ladybug? Something you thought was worthy of being Ladyblog content?”

“I’m  _ working  _ on fixing it,” Alya says, attempting to keep her voice even, “We’re all aware and on the same page about Lila being a liar now.”

“A liar, huh? Sounds like she has a penchant for causing drama,” Felix muses, “Ah, just take a look at what's going on over there. Ask and you shall receive.”

A small crowd has gathered. In the center is Lila, still gripping Adrien’s arm, and looking like a puppy that just got kicked. Adrien looks deflated, as if anything he has to say will be ignored or debunked. Nino has his arms crossed over his chest, looking malcontent and tired. 

And then there’s Kagami, looking downright infuriated.

“Kagami…”

“No, I’ve had  _ enough _ , Adrien!” she yells, much to the shock of everyone around them, “If you don’t actually want me around, you can just tell me instead of pulling stunts like this!”

She storms off, leaving everyone behind in a storm of gossip. Marinette can’t help but feel a little bad, despite having no context for the conversation that ensued. Anything that had Lila in it couldn’t be any good to deal with.

“Well, so much for a peaceful first day of school,” Alya mutters, “Maybe I should-”

Alya never gets the chance to finish her sentence, as mere moments after sauntering off, Kagami reappears, akumatized.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be continued in part 2.
> 
> Yup, that's right. I'm back to employing those multi-parters. I think I might be doing more of that from now on, since things are getting so complicated. This chapter had a lot of set-up to work with, and throwing in everything with Kagami would have been too much. The next chapter can focus on that fallout.
> 
> So Felix, our wild card, is now in the game. He's so much of a wild card, I didn't even know initially if I was going to include him in this version of the story. But his characterization in his debut episode was actually more interesting than it had the right to be, so I think he can work here too. And to be perfectly clear, there will be no love triangle or romance drama involving him. I think we've had enough of that from Chat. Besides, he has other means of causing drama. And I have AUs of this AU where he can focus more on the romance (notably the Felinette and Ice Art versions). 
> 
> Next time, Kagami is akumatized, and there's just one detail about it that Alya is not pleased with.


	3. Just Want to Have Friends II

The akumatized Kagami stands holding a sword, and her phone. A red helmet covers her, with a matter mask, similar to her fencing once, used to protect her face. The top half of her suit is red, along with the sleeves and boots. On the other hand, her gloves, shoulder pads, leggings and flares skirt are all black.

It's uncanny just how similar in theme her costume is to Space Patrol. Had it been Kagami's desire or was Hawkmoth slacking off in terms of design?

"Citizens of Paris. I am Friend Zone, and I am going to be teaching you all a lesson about what happens when you treat people poorly!"

Some of the students begin to scatter, Adrien among them, not wanting to risk getting in the akuma's way. Lila is not quick enough however, and gets blasted by a beam coming from Friend Zone's phone. 

"Interesting," Felix muses, taking his phone out, "I'm supposing my cousin will be her other main target. We ought to find him before she does."

She bites her lip, but can't help but agree. Even if Adrien was one of her least favorite people right now, she couldn't allow Friend Zone to take things that far. After sending Luka an emergency text, she taps Alya's shoulder, revealing a rather irritated expression.

"Um, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she says, trying to keep her tone even, "I'm just not fond of the name Hawkmoth gave his latest akuma."

"Oh."

"That's a pretty trivial thing to be upset about," Felix muses.

"I don't want to talk about it," Alya huffs, "Let's go stop her." 

\--

About fifteen minutes later, they're in the middle of town, following Felix's lead. What Marinette really needs to do is wait for an opportunity to ditch him and transform. Instead, he drags the two of them toward a boutique. 

“I thought we were looking for Adrien,” Alya says.

“It seems he had a different idea in mind,” Felix scowls, “Honestly, he always leaves  _ me  _ to clean up his messes…”

Walking inside the store, they come face to face with a blonde woman in her forties.

"Oh, are you Felix?" 

The woman approaches him with a set of clothes, looking identical to Adrien's typical attire. Reluctantly, he takes the set of clothes and asks, "I assume he already took care of payment?"

"That won't be a problem," she assures him.

"What are you doing?" Alya asks, staring at the clothes, "Wait, you're-"

"Going to pose as Adrien and lure out the akuma, yes," he says, "Despite some rather obvious differences, from a distance, the two of us look quite alike."

"That's not a bad idea, but isn't it a bit dangerous?" Marinette points out, "We have no idea what she might do to you if she sees you."

"Well," he says, giving a pointed look in Alya's direction, " _ Someone  _ has to do  _ something _ ."

The look doesn't go unnoticed, and it earns him a harsh glare in return, "What's _ that _ supposed to mean?"

"I think you know what I'm getting at, Ladyblogger," he sighs, "You haven't been updating in weeks, and there was the whole fiasco with the fake confession you never properly addressed. Are you going to continue running forever?"

"I had no such plans," Alya retorts, "I've been rather busy planning my return. And before you ask,  _ yes _ I'm planning on getting footage of the akuma," she says, whipping out her phone, "And I do plan on being careful about it."

Without so much as another word, Alya storms out of the store, phone at the ready, and on the hunt for Friend Zone.

_ I guess some things never change. _

"Excellent," Felix muses, "That just leaves you and me,  _ partner _ ."

Crossing her arms over her chest, she studies him with a cool glance. "What are you talking about?"

"We're going to go undercover. I'll be Adrien, and you'll be some random girl he's hanging out with. Friend Zone will no doubt be jealous and come after us, and hopefully, by then, Ladybug will be around to save us."

"Uh, I don't think I should go with you," she points out, "I'm not exactly on the best terms with Adrien right now."

Pausing a moment, Felix regards Marinette with a long stare and a frown. His expression doesn't possess malice or disappointment like Adrien's does. Rather, there's a burning curiosity that threatens the barriers in her mind, protecting her deepest secrets.

"Interesting. He mentioned to me that you were a friend," he hums, "Did something happen between the two of you?"

"I'd rather not talk about it," she says, hoping it doesn't sound like she's hissing. "Anyway, you should put on your disguise and we can figure out another plan."

Sighing, he moves into a changing room, giving her plenty of time to think of a distraction. If she uses the distortion power, she might be able to trick Felix into thinking she was kidnapped, or perhaps...

"Ugh, untailored pants," Felix sighs, "Well, I suppose it'll have to do."

"Let me guess. Mr. Agreste has all of Adrien's clothes tailored?"

"Well, of course. But coming from you, that's to be expected," Felix smirks, "Of course, this is an off the rack version. All clothes in my uncle's youth lines are that way. Enough about that. We need to get going."

"Right," she says, waving the symbol in front of his face, "We'll get right on it." In her mind, she pictures a fake Ladybug pulling into the store, explaining to Felix that it's too dangerous for Marinette to stay with him. She leaves to go home, and Ladybug makes sure she gets there safely. When Ladybug returns, she'll keep an eye out for Friend Zone as Felix lures her out. Thankfully, the security camera will also pick up on it, so the shop's owner won't be out of the loop if she reviewed the footage.

Once the coast is clear, she finds a hiding spot to transform and makes her way back to the entrance of the store. Sending Viperion a message with her location, she walks through the door to see a disgruntled Felix.

"Ladybug, you're back," he says with a grumble, "And just in time, too."

Before she can even ask, she feels the sudden tug at her arm and cringes as she comes face to face with Lila.

“Oh, Ladybug, I knew you’d be here to save me!” she cries, Ladybug just able to shake her off before she can throw her arms over for a hug, “That mean Friend Zone doesn’t want me around Adrien. I’m just glad to see he’s okay!”

“Gross, I’m not Adrien,” Felix sneers, “I just happen to look like him, that’s all.”

“Oh, that must make you his cousin! I’m Lila Rossi and I-”

“Am wasting time,” he yawns, “Ladybug, can we please get this over with? The sooner I can return into my street clothes, the better.”

_ Wow, he must really hate Adrien if he doesn’t even like wearing his clothes. But I wonder why he’d go so far as to imitate him then? _

“Wait a second, how did you escape?” Ladybug frowns, studying Lila, “She was holding you prisoner, wasn’t she?”

“Oh, Ladybug, it was just terrible!” she pouts, throwing her hand over her head as though it weren’t the most cliche, dramatic gesture to use, “Friend Zone had me trapped in there, and only promised to let me out if I would be her friend!”

She rolls her eyes, but doesn’t question it further. Lila was hiding something, and she had a feeling that once they found Friend Zone, she’d get an inkling as to what that was.

The three of them only make it a few steps outside before Friend Zone makes her appearance, nearly shooting and capturing Ladybug with her phone. Behind her, she can hear Lila trip and cry, rubbing her ankle.

“Oh no, I think I broke my foot!” 

One glance over at Felix reveals that he doesn’t believe it either, but he looks rather annoyed at having to deal with both Friend Zone  _ and  _ Lila. Hoisting her up to her feet, he drags her back toward the store, not even so much as saying goodbye as he left.

Friend Zone fires another beam, and Ladybug barely notices it from the corner of her eye. Thankfully, she’s swept off her feet and placed down on the roof of a building higher up.

“Sorry, I’m late. I hope my entrance makes up for it.”

“Oh, absolutely,” she says, “The akuma has to be in her phone. Now we just need to come up with a plan and end this quickly.”

Summoning her Lucky Charm, she receives another yoyo. When she opens it up, a menu screen reveals an audio file, reading “Adrien.mp3”. From there, the rest of the plan falls into place. She leads Viperion back to the clothing store, walking over to the register and pressing play on the player. Moments later, Friend Zone bursts through the doors, much to the dismay of a frightened Lila and annoyed Felix. Hearing the sounds of Adrien’s voice, she checks behind the counter, confused to only see the audio player, and is easily caught off guard by Snake Eyes.

Snatching the phone from Kagami, Ladybug breaks it, revealing the akuma, and casts Miraculous healing, reverting everyone back to normal.

“Ugh,” Kagami groans, clutching her head, “What happened to me?”

“You were akumatized,” she says quietly, patting her shoulder, “But everything is alright now.”

There’s a hitch in her voice. “No, it’s not. Ladybug, my mother was already worried when I was akumatized into Riposte  _ twice _ . She’s going to be very disappointed in me when she hears I was akumatized  _ again _ , especially over a boy!” A heavy tension settles into her shoulders, and she bites back what must be sobs from breaking out. “It’s so stupid. Of course I have no say over who Adrien gets to hang out with, and I’m not his girlfriend but… every time we hang out,  _ someone  _ has to interrupt and ruin it. And he just lets them! I wonder if he even wants me around most of the time or if he just thinks I’m a clingy, weirdo fangirl!”

At this point, she can’t stop it, and Kagami finally breaks down, hiding her face from everyone and quietly sniffling, trying very hard not to be heard.

“Hey, Ladybug?” Alya asks quietly, “Can you give me a moment alone to talk with Kagami? There’s something I have to apologize for.”

She studies the expressions of the two of them. Kagami looks rather concerned, wiping her tears away, while Alya herself looks rather deflated.

“Alright. I’ll check in with both of you at another time. Kagami,” she says, patting her shoulder, “I just want you to know that I don’t think you’re a clingy weirdo for wanting to hang out with a friend you like. And you’re allowed to be upset if you think he isn’t being fair to you.”

“Ladybug…”

“Please be safe getting home,” she says, heading to the door, Viperion in tow. 

\---

After a long, hot shower, Marinette collapses on top of her bed, face in her pillow. “Talk about a first day,” she grumbles.

“We finally found out who Marianne’s great grandson is,” Tikki offers gently, “Although, I’m not sure if we can trust him.”

Before she can even respond to that, she receives a call for Facetime with Luka, and she’s quick to pick it up.

“Hey,” he says, giving a wave, “How was the rest of your first day?”

“You mean  _ before  _ Friend Zone? Weird, mostly,” she sighs, sitting up on her bed, “First, we learned that Felix, that kid Ivan mentioned at lunch? Yeah, he’s Marianne’s grandson.”

“...That could be a problem.”

“Yeah, it could,” she sighs, “How much of a problem though, remains to be seen. Though he knows a lot about me.”

“Your reputation  _ does  _ precede you.”

Which was going to be a problem in the long-term. On the one hand, it would get her the attention of big name designers, and possibly kick start her career. However, it also meant having to keep people like Felix at bay and learn how to deflect when he got too close to the truth. More than ever, she’s thankful for the ritual and the powers she’s obtained from it.

“It looks like a conversation with Marianne is in my future.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that brings an end to this two-parter. I might be employing more of them in the future if the plot continues to get more complicated, and allows me to slow down the pace a bit.
> 
> That's right, Hawkmoth is such a hack, he recycled one of his unused akuma names. Go figure.
> 
> I'm not sure what to say to expect for next time. It'll be either a chapter with Ruby or a follow-up to this one focusing on Tomoe. Either way, we're getting both at some point.


	4. Just Want to Have Friends III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Make sure to read Kagami's Interlude chapter in "Paper Sky" first before reading this.

Before she can even wake up and get dressed, Marinette knows that the second day of school will be just as eventful as the first. Between Kagami's intervention and the mysterious Felix, too many questions were left to be answered by Marianne. Marinette was swift to schedule a time to meet with her and get those answers for later that day after school.

And that had just been official Guardian business. Kitty Section had an interview later that evening with a local, but prominent music publication. There was no doubt in her mind that they would ask about their livestream the other night, prior to releasing their single.

So when Alya runs up to her at school that morning, practically clutching her arm, she's not sure what to expect.

"Do you want to eat lunch with Kagami and me today?" she asks, her eyes practically glittering, "I think it'll really help the two of you bond and clear the air!"

She blinks, taking a moment to think about what's been said. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I think the both of you have the wrong idea of each other, and got off on the wrong foot," she explains, "I feel somewhat responsible, so I want to help make things right."

"I guess that would be alright," she hums, "Speaking of which, I see you didn't update the Ladyblog yesterday."

"Oh, yeah."

Alya bites her lip, looking away for a few seconds as she pulls out her phone. A drafted post sits on the screen, titled "Ladyblog 2.0". Scrolling through it, Marinette can see that it's finished and ready to be published at any moment.

"Looks good to me. Are you going to post it?" Marinette asks.

Alya nods slowly, as if uncertain of her own answer. "Before class starts. Although I'm certain I'm going to get bombarded with comments and worry about it the whole time."

"Then allow me," Marinette says, reaching for the phone. Alya complies, and with one click, the post is now up. "There. You know, I've never seen you so nervous about something. Is that why you didn't post about-"

"It wouldn't feel right if my first post back was about an akuma, without giving a proper apology," Alya answers, letting out a sigh. "I'm not sure where things go from here, but at least I've made the first step. The next one is answering those inevitable questions."

"I'll help you at lunch," Marinette volunteers, "I have some stuff after school today, so I may not be able to help much."

"That's fine. Thank you, Marinette."

\--

Le Grand Paris has slowly become one of Marinette's least favorite places in Paris, so she's not exactly thrilled that Alya chose to eat lunch there. Quite a few people in Paris agreed with her sentiment, leading to the hotel to being boycotted and fewer customers in the restaurant. Kagami seems to agree, not looking quite comfortable as they stroll inside.

Normally, at this time, the restaurant would be packed, taking their time and enjoying the food prepared by Marlene and her team. Now, only half the tables are full, easily allowing three middle school students to find a place to sit and relax. 

"I've never actually eaten your mom's cooking," Marinette realizes, "Now I'm really excited."

"Wow, I can't believe that's true," Alya says, "Ugh, what kind of friend am I? She wanted to surprise us today, otherwise I'd give you a recommendation."

"I didn't realize your mother was the chef here, Alya," Kagami laughs, throwing her head back nervously, "My mother has eaten here before with Mr. Agreste and they mentioned that the food was excellent."

"Then I'm sure she won't disappoint," Alya says with a wink, "I've wanted to bring people here to eat for a while, but there's super strict rules about that stuff. They've been a bit more lax as of late due to recent events. Plus," she leans forward to whisper, "I think they're trying to keep my mom from changing jobs."

Biting her lip, she nods, but says nothing. Quite a few people had resigned from Mayor Bourgeois' team over the past month. Even some of his most staunch members couldn't look past how he handled the Miracle Queen incident. Of course, there were just as many people that stayed, arguing that they could keep him in check, but Marinette figured it had more to do with their salaries being raised.

The same went with the staff at the hotel. Quite a few people started looking for positions elsewhere, especially since his rivals were starting to generate a bit more business. It wouldn't surprise Marinette to see Marlene land a position as Head Chef at a far more reputable place than Le Grand Paris.

It's a bit strange not being able to order her own food. However, Alya insists that she already spoke to her mom about preferences, so she would make something everyone at the table would like. As they wait for their mystery meal, Alya checks her phone every now and again, no doubt looking at the comments on the Ladyblog.

"How's it going?" Marinette asks. She's surprised to catch Alya off-guard to the point that she nearly drops her phone. "Sorry, I was just curious."

"It's fine. Comments have been slowly rolling in, but I'll probably get hit with most of them later," she says, putting it down on the table. "Anyway, time to talk about what we're really here for. Kagami, would you like to start?"

With a sigh, she turns to face Marinette, giving herself a moment to collect her thoughts before she speaks. She sits with her back straight, and her hands folded neatly on the table. From across the table, Marinette can feel her tense.

"A while back, Adrien and I were supposed to go to the ice rink together, on what I believed to be a date. When you showed up with your…  _ boyfriend _ , I felt as though you were attempting to sabotage us by making Adrien jealous."

She frowns. "I assure you that wasn't my intention. Adrien came to me, asking for help on getting a date with you. Since he was my friend, I wanted to help him, even if it hurt me to see him with another girl."

"Then why did you come on the date?"

"Admittedly, I wasn't thinking at the time," she says quietly, "But even though I wanted to back out of it, I figured it would give me closure to see Adrien with someone else. I mean, I still should have confessed to him, for my own sake, but it was obvious to me that he wasn't into me that way. And I didn’t want to lose him as a friend, so I said nothing."

At this, Kagami frowns, studying Marinette for a moment. "So then... you're not the girl that Adrien said he had feelings for?"

She hadn't heard of Adrien having feelings for anyone, but with hindsight it made sense - he had been talking about Ladybug, but obviously couldn't spell it out like that to Kagami. 

It feels like a lie saying yes or no either way. But both answers were also the truth, and one of those truths could endanger her if it got out. 

"No. I thought the girl he had feelings for was you."

This takes her aback, and she stares down at her empty plate. "Does this mean he played us? Did he waste my time with niceties?"

Alya hums, studying the two of them. "Adrien isn't the sharpest tool in the drawer when it comes to people, but my hunch tells me he wasn't trying to set you two up to fight," she argues, "That boy isn't fond of conflict, and he'll keep secrets if it means keeping the peace, even if it means putting himself in a compromising position."

_ Like when he kept quiet about knowing about my feelings _ , Marinette reminds herself. 

"Still," Kagami scowls, "When Chloe and Lila tried crashing our times to hang out, he wouldn't say anything. He even tried to make excuses for them. I spent a lot of time wondering last night if maybe he had a thing for toying with people's feelings, or if he was just too much of a doormat to fight for what he wanted."

For a moment, Marinette feels a pang in her heart. Rather than annoyance, she can't help but feel bad for Adrien. After all, she relates all too well to being too much of a pushover and being unable to say no to people. It's easy to picture their disappointed expressions when she fails them or has to say no.

But constantly striving to do everything for everyone else would eventually lead to disappointing someone, and she, herself, was not excluded from that. Whether others thought it was selfish or not, she had a right to make herself happy too. 

In some ways, Adrien still hadn't learned that lesson. 

"Whatever the case is with him, I know the truth about you now, and that's what's most important," Kagami concludes, meeting her gaze, "Going forward, I'd rather be on your good side."

"I agree. I'm glad we were able to-"

A sudden rumbling interrupts her, and looking outside, a red, warrior-like akuma roams, terrifying everyone 

"Where is my daughter? Those deceive her and use her will pay for what they've done!"

"Mother?" Kagami gasps, looking out the window, "What is she talking about?"

"That's your mom?" Alya asks, pulling the three of them under the table, "Man, I wouldn't want to piss her off."

"Any idea why she might be like that?" Marinette asks.

Kagami bites her lip. "Normally, I go home for lunch to eat. Today, I told her I would eat at school instead, but I think she figured out that I was with you guys instead."

"So you didn't tell her?"

She averts her gaze. "She doesn't want me hanging out with people she thinks will take advantage of me. Even if I trust them, if she suspects them even a little, she'll go out of her way to get a restraining order. It's either that or she's still upset about me getting akumatized and having the press hounding me for answers, but that hasn't happened today!"

"Well, that puts us in a tight spot then," Marinette sighs, "Come on, let's figure out a plan."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, two chapters in one day! 
> 
> So once again, this episode will be divided into two chapters, even though it shares the same name as the previous episode. Think of it as like a mini arc of sorts. 
> 
> It took longer to get through these two chapters because I ended up outlining this arc two ways, and couldn't decide which I liked better. Originally, I was going to have the order go like this:  
> 1\. Gamer 2.0  
> 2\. Friend Zone  
> 3\. Ruby  
> 4\. Ikari Gozen  
> 5\. Fleur
> 
> But I decided that switching Ruby and Ikari Gozen would have made a lot more sense, and give us a mini arc that could parallel/rival Chloe's Queen arc back in season two. And so, here we are.


	5. Just Want to Have Friends IV

The first place they think to hide in is the kitchen. Marlene starts pushing whatever heavy objects she can against the doors, while the three of them huddle in the corner.

“I have to do something,” Kagami insists, looking toward the door. For a moment, her leg brushes against Marinette, but it’s enough for Marinette to feel how tense and jittery she is. “I shouldn’t have angered my mother like that. If I can lure her away from here until Ladybug arrives-”

“You’re not doing that alone,” Alya interrupts, “We need a plan, and we need it to involve keeping you as far away from your mom until things calm down.”

Marinette nods, putting a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll think of something.”

She pulls out her phone, sending an SOS to Luka. He should, hopefully, be on his lunch, and hopefully be able to help with this situation. In the meantime, she needs to think of a way to separate herself from the two girls so Ladybug could enter the fray, maybe gaining other assistance.

“There are two potentially good places for the three of you to hide,” Marlene says, still standing at the door, “Either at the highest floor near the roof, or in the basement.”

The idea of hiding anywhere near Chloe’s room when she was taking her lunch there absolutely unnerved Marinette. But she couldn’t discount it in the case of an emergency. And since it was much higher up than the basement, it would likely hinder her movements. They’d also have the advantage, swinging in from above.

“Let’s go to the roof,” Alya says, “We can survey the area from above, and I can send an alert to everyone in the area without putting myself in danger.”

Kagami frowns. “My mother won’t be happy knowing that she was akumatized and nearly hurt the entire city…” 

“I’ll do my best to downplay her human identity,” Alya assures her, “It’s more important to put emphasis on the attack, what she’s capable of, and which areas she’s affecting. But the people  _ do  _ need to know what’s going on.”

She nods, though Marinette is still well aware of her uncertain expression. “All we can do right now is to get out of the kitchen and to somewhere safe. Let’s hurry.”

Of course, going with them was only going to put herself into a more compromising position. She was going to need a distraction to slip away, and hopefully meet up with Viperion. If Chloe was up there, then a distraction might have been a lot easier to concoct, even if she wasn’t looking forward to an Alya and Kagami vs Chloe confrontation. 

Running into the lobby, a worse opportunity presents itself, as she catches from the corner of her eye, Lila sneaking toward the door. However, seeing what was going on outside, she doesn’t attempt to flee, and keeps her head popped out, just a bit.

“Hey, wait a second,” Alya yells, “What is  _ she  _ doing here?”

It’s tempting to storm over there and demand answers herself. And knowing Lila, the answer was likely that she followed the three of them over to the restaurant, trying to set them up and get in trouble. However, she needs to stay focused on getting Ladybug to arrive on the scene and save Kagami.

“Of all people,” Kagami huffs, “You think she was the one to set us up?”

“I don’t know, but once this is all over, I’m doing some serious sleuthing,” Alya says, crossing her arms, “There’s no way her just showing up is just a coincidence.”

Just at that second, Marinette catches a glimpse of Lila staring back at them, smirking, before running out of the building, and catching her faking a sigh.

“Oh no, Ms. Tomoe! I didn’t mean to get you so upset!” she cries, “I only wanted to help Kagami stay on the right path! Please, don’t be mad that she went to Le Grand Paris without your knowledge!”

“ _ You _ ,” she hears Ikari Gozen growl, “You’re the girl responsible for looking out for my Kagami?”

“Well, I  _ tried  _ to,” she explains, “But she’s in there with those nasty girls I told you about.”

She doesn’t need any more details to put two and two together. Somehow, Lila got in contact with Kagami’s mother and made the two of them out to be the bad guys.  _ How  _ that happened would be interesting to learn later, 

“We need to go  _ now _ ,” Marinette insists, leading the three of them to the elevator. She pushes buttons for more than one door by accident, and then gets an idea. Leaping through the door, Marinette huddles the other two girls together. “I think it’s a bit convenient that Lila ended up here, and then was having such a casual conversation with Kagami’s mom. So we’re going to get to the bottom of it.”

“How are we going to do that?” Kagami frowns, “We can’t exactly go about asking either one of them while we’re being hunted down.”

“We’re going to split up,” Marinette says, “First, we hide you somewhere where your mom can’t find you. The roof is the best bet, since it doesn’t seem like she has any means of being able to get up there. Afterwards, we wait and then Alya and I will go to look for security footage to check and see when Lila entered the restaurant.”

Alya frowns. “I realize that Lila is basically a snake, but do you really think that she went out of her way to get someone akumatized as revenge?”

“I’m not sure,” Marinette sighs, “I’ll admit, I’m biased in my opinion, but I wouldn’t put it past her. Either way, something is off with her.”

Alya nods, but remains quiet for a moment. Marinette can feel the intensity of her thoughts swimming around in her mind, even as they finally reach a spot to hide Kagami. After waiting a few moments, the two girls rush back downstairs to the security room.

“I’ll wait out here,” Marinette says, “And warn you if someone is headed our way. Go ahead and see what you can do.”

“This doesn’t feel right, but if it’s serious, I need to know,” Alya says, heading through the door. Marinette can’t help the sigh of relief that escapes her.

“We’re cutting it close,” Tikki comments, “Let’s hurry and get going.”

“Of course, but we’re going to need to call in a friend or two.”

After transforming, she runs into the security room, Alya gasping as the door swings open.

“Oh, Ladybug, you scared me. I, uh, should probably explain myself-”

“Your friend Marinette already told me,” she says, “Someone was about to catch her outside the door, so I told her to hide somewhere else. Anyway, I need your help today.”

After transforming into Rena, Ladybug fills her in on the plan. Taking out her flute, Rena runs for an open window, waiting to summon her mirage. In the meantime, Ladybug connects her yoyo to the security camera, looking back to moments before when they were waiting in the restaurant. She doesn’t have time to review all the footage, but she stores it in a file similar to the one she had of the Agreste Mansion. When the footage is ready, she disconnects and meets back up with Rena. The two of them rush back up the stairs, bumping into Kagami.

“Ladybug, Rena Rouge,” she gasps, “But where’s Viperion?”

“We need to buy a bit more time for Viperion to show up,” Ladybug explains, “Rena summon the mirage now.”

Playing the tune, Rena creates a fake Kagami, running straight into the street where Ikari Gozen lurks. As planned, it catches Ikari Gozen’s attention, and she begins chasing after the mirage. She’s in such a fury that as she runs, little waves tremble across the city, like an earthquake. It’s enough that, for a moment, everyone can’t help but fall over their feet. Taking out her yoyo, she zooms in on the screen to confirm that, yes, the quakes were coming from Ikari Gozen.

Looking over her shoulder, Rena comments, “Damn, that’s quite some firepower she’s got there. Wait, that’s-”

Before she can finish her comment, Lila runs into the scene, stopping the fake Kagami in her tracks. Studying the screen, she can’t make out Lila’s expression, but it’s pretty obvious from her body language that she intentionally meant to get in the way. The fake Kagami struggles against Lila’s iron grip, and Ladybug sees her plan crumbling to dust when Ikari Gozen starts to close in on them, taking the fake Kagami and opening her mouth.

Thankfully, Viperion’s lyre hits Ikari Gozen on top of her head, making her stagger backwards. However, it’s not enough to save the fake Kagami from disappearing, just as she is about to be swallowed. Reclaiming his instrument, he is affronted by Lila, who seems all too giddy and quick to be handsy with him. She says something to him, and he looks her straight in the eye, playing a couple of notes from his lyre, causing her to pass out.

If it weren’t for the fact that they were fighting off Kagami’s mom, Ladybug would have taken more time to savor Lila being put to sleep by Viperion. He was at least kind enough to leave her in the lobby of the hotel. But now that meant they had one less power to use against Ikari Gozen, and the fake Kagami had poofed out of existence by now.

“ _ Where is my daughter? _ ” Ikari Gozen screams, causing the whole city to shake. The girls all run to find something to hold onto until the shaking stops. During the chaos, she’s barely able to send a message to Viperion, alerting him to their location.

“Ladybug,” Rena cries, “My miraculous is about to-”

“I know,” she frowns, “I have an idea though.”

She pulls three more miraculous from her yoyo. The bee, which will no doubt serve Alya well. The turtle, which Luka will be able to use temporarily, and perhaps see how well he does with other powers.

And the dragon…

She looks to Kagami, who doesn’t seem to notice. 

“Rena, go into another room, and use this,” she says, handing her the comb, “And then return the fox to me.”

For a moment, Rena hesitates, as though she didn’t hear Ladybug correctly. But she doesn’t argue, and runs off, the comb in hand. With her gone, Ladybug turns her attention to Kagami.

“Kagami Tsurugi,” she says, “This is the miraculous of the dragon. It will grant you the powers of the elements. Once Ikari Gozen has been defeated, you must return the miraculous to me. Can I trust you?”

She’s wide-eyed for a second, sharing a similar expression to Rena mere seconds ago. But she also doesn’t question Ladybug and merely nods, opening the box to reveal Longg.

“Why, hello there young lady. My name is Longg, and I will be serving you as your kwami. Using my powers, you will be able to change between the elements of water, wind and lightning, but you can only use one at a time. Heed my instructions and guidance from Ladybug and you will have no problems. All you have to say is ‘Longg, bring the storm!’”

“Got it,” she says, a smile finally appearing on her face, “Longg, bring the storm!”

Just as she finishes transforming, the newly transformed Alya runs into the room. Her new costume looks akin to that of a sweater and bike shorts combo; the top is mostly yellow, but broken up by sections of black at the chest, and a swirl design on the sleeves. The “shorts” are also black, breaking up the sections of yellow on top, and the leggings on bottom, with black combat boots to match.

“Rena, you look great.”

“Call me Abeille Dorée,” she says, handing the fox necklace over, “And I’m ready to serve. And how about our new recruit here?”

“Ryuko,” Kagami says, without a moment’s hesitation.

“Great, that just leaves-”

As if on cue, Viperion bursts into the room, alarmed by the sight of two new miraculous holders.

“Ladybug, I used my power a bit early.”

“It’s fine. Switch to this one,” she says, biting back a laugh and handing over the bracelet, “And hurry. We have got a bit of work cut out for us.”

He’s in and out of the room in a matter of seconds. When he returns, he’s equipped with the powers of the turtle. The light blue highlights in his hair take more of a green tint, matching the shoulder pads and main body of his suit, with the bottom half taking on a scale-like pattern. The midsection takes after a mint color, and the shield rests on his back.

“You’ve got me curious now to see what Carapace would look like with the Snake,” Abeille teases, “Right, Viperion?”

“I’m not Viperion right now. Call me Maturin,” he says, keeping a straight expression. “What’s the plan, Ladybug?”

“We need to figure out where the akumatized object is,” she hums, “We’ve been so distracted, we haven’t really had the time to study our opponent.”

“Ladybug, I have an idea as to where it might be,” Ryuko says, looking out the window, “That sword she carries at her hip, it seems like something important to someone who enjoys fencing and fighting sports. But it’s going to take quite a bit of work catching her off-guard”

“Good observation. Now we just need something to give us an edge.” Summoning her Lucky Charm, she receives a box of bath bombs. The raging Ikari Gozen still rages in front of the hotel, interrogating those she sees in their hiding spots. Looking back at her partners, she begins to understand what has to happen. While having Abeille use Venom seems like the obvious choice, she wasn’t used to these powers like she had been with Mirage. She couldn’t count on it landing. And Maturin’s power, while not putting him on the offensive, would be best reserved as a last resort. “Maturin, Abeille, the two of you need to distract Ikari Gozen. Ryuko and I are going to catch her off guard.

Racing out the window, the four heroes run outside, with Maturin and Abeille Dorée falling to the ground below, catching the attention of Ikari Gozen. Abeille is quick to use her spinning top, rather than pulling out Venom, much to Ladybug’s relief. Maturin isn’t quite as used to throwing the shield as he was with his lyre, missing a few throws. It’s hard to tell from a distance, but Ladybug just catches the corners of his mouth twitching. 

_ Something else must be bothering him. I should ask later. _

Ladybug leads Ryuko just behind Ikari Gozen, before whispering the plan in her ear. As Ryuko prepares herself to land on Ikari Gozen’s shoulder, Ladybug uses her yoyo to fake an attempt at grabbing her sword.

“Foolish Ladybug!” Ikari Gozen rants, not taking a moment to realize Ryuko plopping down on her shoulder and jumping into her mouth, “You aren’t strong enough to stop me so easily!”

Smirking Ladybug races to the other side of the street, cuing Abeille to toss her spinning top in unison with her. Forming a rope, the two girls run toward Ikari Gozen, looking to trip her up, as Maturin prepares to use Shellter. As expected, Ikari Gozen brushes it off, but then soon starts to choke. Water seeps out of her body, and she keels over, the sword falling off her side. Using his shield, Maturin helps Ladybug break the sword and free the akuma, allowing her to cleanse it and set everything back to normal.

“Good work, everyone. Let’s get out of here.”

\--

Following the fight, there’s no other choice but to allow for Kagami to take the limo ride back to school, while Alya and Marinette walk all the way back.

“I’m sorry about all of this,” Alya finally says after about two minutes.

“It’s not your fault,” Marinette points out, “If we’re right, then Lila set us up. She probably used circumstantial evidence to make you look like a bad guy.”

“Yeah, but if it weren’t for my reckless behavior, Kagami’s mom might have a better opinion of us,” Alya points out, “I keep getting everyone else in trouble, just because I-”

“Alya, chill,” Marinette says, patting her shoulder, “Let’s wait and see what Kagami has to say before we freak out. Besides, I’m sure that Mrs. Tomoe will appreciate not making a guest appearance on the blog, since she seems like a private person.”

Alya blinks before sighing. “That was only because we got so caught up in trying to find out if Lila set us up. I was only going to post an alert to warn people, but it totally slipped my mind. I just hope no one got seriously hurt because of that.”

About five minutes later, they reach the front of the school, where Kagami is waiting at the front entrance. There’s no Lila in sight, and Marinette realizes that she hasn’t seen her since the fight ended.  _ I just hope she woke up and came back to school on her own _ . 

Kagami’s face seems to light up when the two of them walk up to her. Confused, the two girls look at each other. 

“I didn’t get to speak to her too much,” Kagami says, as if reading their minds, “There will probably be a lecture in store after school though.”

“I’m sorry. I get what that’s like. But you know what? If she wants someone to blame, it can be me,” Alya laments, “You know, we never did get to eat that lunch together. I guess that just means we’ll have to postpone.”

Exchanging a smile with Kagami, Marinette says, “I’m looking forward to it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Abeille Dorée = Golden Bee and Maturin is a reference to the turtle god from Stephen King's works.
> 
> Thus, we come to an end of the Kagami mini arc. This arc as a whole has two more episodes (Ruby and Fleur), so about another two to four chapters to go. 
> 
> It's been almost a year since we began the TOtMiS series! I've been trying to think of ways to celebrate and do fun stuff, because I never thought we'd get to this point. I've been taking suggestions on my tumblr, and I have three things planned: a Lila Interlude (which tbh I was already planning anyway), a fourth wall breaking omake chapter based on a suggestion, and a chapter/story set in the future with married Marinette and Luka looking back on events (this one I might hold off on as an epilogue chapter, but it's in the line-up). Feel free to leave your own suggestions in my tumblr inbox. My username on there is xxxsaltybugxxx. You can also leave a comment on this chapter too, it's just easier to track everything there.
> 
> I'm also going to be opening up my Animal Crossing Island to visitors. I'll be announcing when on my blog, so keep an eye out! It'll be through Dodo Code.


	6. Just Want to Relax I

The end of the school day couldn't have come any sooner. Nothing of further incident occurs, and once the final bell rings, she makes a run out the door to meet with Marianne. She's just able to catch a glimpse of Kagami and Alya smoothing things over with Ms. Tsurugi, much to her relief. Alya shoots her a wink, promising to text the details later, leaving her to focus on another troubling person.

Marianne's message tells her to meet her at a small cafe, not far from the school. It's in an area of town that she's not overly familiar with, but can easily find her way around. Once she identifies the Blue Spoon Cafe, she walks through the door and takes a seat far away from the window.

"Hello, Marinette," Marianne greets, slamming some papers onto the table, "Good to see you as lively as ever."

"I don't know if I would say that," she retorts.

"You dealt with a  _ you-know-what _ , and made it here, didn't you? That's pretty lively in my books."

Not sure how to respond to that, she fidgets in her seat, adjusting herself so she sits upright. In the meantime, Marianne shuffles her papers about, arranging them into a neat pile before filing them into a briefcase.

"I'm afraid I'm not the most well-organized when on the go," she comments, "Or perhaps it's that cute great grandson of mine who throws me off."

She bites her lip. "Right... about that-"

"Oh my, is he already causing problems?" she sighs, clicking her tongue, "I figured as much. He does have a particular way of approaching people, but I hope he hasn't done anything too forward with anyone."

"It's not that," she says, folding her hands over neatly, "It just seems like he knows a lot about me. Uncomfortably so."

"He  _ does _ his research," she remarks, receiving a cup of coffee and taking a sip, "I think it's only fair to even the playing field."

She doesn't bother to hide the smile that creeps up on her face. For once, it's nice being able to get the drop on someone and have a better understanding of the players on the board. Their lead on Hawkmoth was somewhat promising, but they still needed to nail him with something, and until then, they were at a stalemate. Chloe and Adrien were stuck wallowing in their own pity to do anything. Lila was crafty, but at this point, didn't have any real power to be a proper bully, let alone a super villain. Still, if push came to shove, she had little idea what any of those four would be willing to do at this point.

So that left Felix. He might have thought he had enough intel on her, but she would make sure she had plenty of cards up her sleeve to keep him busy. 

"Felix is the only child of my grandson and granddaughter in law," she begins, leaning over the table. "I was incredibly close to my grandson. His father, my son, died when he was a young boy, and his mother was heartbroken. I did everything I could to keep them going. Unfortunately, Felix's father passed away not too long ago under similar circumstances."

"I'm sorry to hear that," she says quietly, "I hope everything is alright."

"It's as fine as it's going to get," Marianne sighs, staring at her cup, "Amelie, my granddaughter-in-law, is horrified since it happened not too long after her sister disappeared. But she's trying to stay strong and take on more work to keep them going. I think the first time I’ve seen her smile since it happened was when I said I was going to be in Paris. I could tell she was dying for me to invite Felix to stay with me while she did her jobs, rather than leave him with his Uncle Gabriel. Heck, that even made  _ him  _ smile, and you’ll quickly find that he doesn’t genuinely smile at a lot of things."

She frowns. It seemed strange that someone who was already ridiculously wealthy would need to take on more hours. Marianne senses her wariness though and is quick to answer.

"Amelie has always been a hard worker like that, I'm afraid. Her  _ and _ my grandson. If it weren't for these face calls you young people have these days, Felix wouldn't be hearing from his mother as much. Thankfully, she always finds time out of the week to make for him.

"By nature, Felix is rather curious. He likes to have the answers to everything, and he likes being the one to figure out the pieces to a puzzle. Whether it’s reading a mystery novel, watching that  _ Detective Conan _ show of his, or sticking his nose in real life mysteries, his curiosity is never satisfied.”

“So if someone were to catch his interest-”

“Then he would be absolutely ruthless in his pursuit of knowledge,” she says firmly, “Especially if you’re like me and try to dodge his questions. I imagine it’s only a matter of time before he cracks the code concerning Guardian secrets and we have to wipe his memory.”

It wasn’t new to her that Marianne didn’t want Felix to know about Guardian business, but  _ why _ was a more concerning factor for her. Did Felix’s curiosities get ahead of him, and allow him to make poor choices? Was it Marianne simply being overprotective? Or did she simply not want her family to be involved?

“Do you think Felix is ill-suited to be a Guardian or hero?”

She pauses for a moment, staring at her cup. “That’s what I’m not sure about. My Felix is intelligent with books and facts. He’s observant and has a way of pulling strings. But he’s not a people person and doesn’t mince his words with people he doesn’t like. And if we add his father’s recent passing into the mix, I’m not sure I like the idea of giving him such power when he should focus on grieving and spending time with his family. And then there’s the matter of his Uncle Gabriel possibly being connected to Hawkmoth somehow. If that’s the case, and he manages to put two and two together about Felix’s secret identity...”

She bites her lip, staring at the table. So even Marianne didn’t have an answer to the mystery of Felix. For now, it seemed that their best bet was to allow events to play out for the time being.

“That being said, I can say I express the utmost confidence with the newest dragon hero today,” Marianne says, breaking her trail of thought, “And Viperion and Rena Rouge borrowing the turtle and bee was good thinking. With our current roster of heroes, the city should be safe for the time being.”

Not sure what to say to that, she looks toward the door and back.  _ For the time being _ , except for the fact that Hawkmoth had one of the two miraculouses he had been hoping for, and balancing hero work with her normal life was getting harder by the day. That wasn’t counting the suspicious videos of Gabriel Agreste’s office, and Lila snooping over to the hotel. When she had a spare moment, she would need to take Viperion aside and show him what she found.

“I know,” Marianne says, as though reading her mind, “ _ That’s _ not going to be good enough in the long run. But things haven’t gotten quite so bad yet, so let’s continue to hang in there for a while longer.”

\--

Marinette can barely get one foot inside of the door of the studio before chaos erupts in her face.

“This is so bad, so,  _ so _ bad!”

Ruby’s voice echoes from the staircase, but Marinette can hear it loud and clear. Despite the warning, it’s not enough to save Marinette from bumping headfirst into Ruby, causing all of her paperwork to topple out of her arms and onto the floor. 

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Ruby cries, shuffling everything back into her arms, “Oh, Marinette, it’s just terrible! I forgot the interviewers are coming today!”

It’s pretty evident from the way she’s dressed. Jagged had no problem with his intern dressing in a simple band shirt and a pair of jeans, or even corduroys, as Ruby preferred. When she felt “extra,” she would accessorize with a chain belt or sleeveless gloves. But for the interview, Ruby had mentioned wanting to wear something a bit more fancy, even if she herself wasn’t the one being interviewed. She and Marinette had thrown around some ideas, but Ruby didn’t seem so confident about wearing any of it, even the ones she seemed to like a lot.

“But you were at the meeting for it last week,” Marinette points out.

“I know! But after pulling a long shift last night, getting into an argument with my father after work, and running errands for Penny all day…! Aah, how am I going to get everything done and  _ not  _ look like a paranoid mess?”

“Hey, come on, don’t be so hard on yourself,” Marinette says, “How about you sit down and take a break?”

“But there’s still so much to do for the interview! And I promised I would get it done as soon as possible!”

“Okay, then why don’t you listen to some music while you work? Maybe it’ll help you relax?”

“I can’t afford to miss hearing any updates from Jagged and Penny!”

“But Ruby-”

“Sorry, Marinette, but I have to get going!”

The beleaguered intern runs off, nearly tripping over her own two feet yet again. Before Marinette can wince in response, she picks herself back up and runs out of the room. Somewhere down the hall, Marinette can hear her drop something again and sigh as she picks it all up again.

“Poor Ruby,” Tikki comments, “It really seems like she could use a break.”

“Yeah,” Marinette laments, “Maybe we should talk to Jagged and see if there’s anything we can do to take over.”

Everyone else is upstairs in the recording studio, Jagged watching as Penny does mock interviews with Kitty Section. Vivica sits next to Jagged, taking mental notes as Jagged critiques them. The moment he catches a glance of Marinette, however, his expression lightens up and he waves her over.

“ _ There _ you are,” he says, greeting her, “I was hoping you’d show up early so you could sit in on this. I figure if you plan on being a famous fashion designer, you ought to learn the ropes of interviews yourself.”

It wouldn’t have been her first time dipping her toes into interviewing waters, but Jagged didn’t need to know the truth about Ladybug’s interview with Alya way back when.

“That would be nice, but what about Ruby?”

Jagged frowns. “You think Ruby needs interview practice too?”

“No, I mean she’s been running around the studio, trying to get preparations done,” Marinette points out, “She seemed rather anxious.”

“She  _ has  _ been working hard lately,” Vivica points out, getting out of her seat, “And I think she’s been dealing with some family drama at home.”

“She didn’t mention anything like that to me,” Jagged muses, “I guess I can postpone coaching you for another time, Marinette..”

“ _ I’ll  _ help her,” Vivica declares, “I’ve gotten plenty of coaching in the last half hour, Jagged. I’m sure I’ll get more for  _ my  _ interview.”

“ _ No need _ .”

The door swings open, revealing Ruby, with a lack of paperwork, and no sign of anxiety or hopelessness in her eyes. In fact, her  _ entire  _ appearance had changed. Her pants were bright red, a color that funnily enough, Ruby never wore. Her sneakers were replaced with a pair of black stilettos, and her blouse was a denim button up, with the top three being left undone to reveal a white camisole underneath. To tie everything together, she had a pair of white sunglasses resting above her head, in a very Chloe way.

“Rubes?” Jagged asks, “I guess you  _ did  _ have time to change after all.”

“Among other things,” she says with a grin. Marinette frowns upon seeing it. There’s too much of a disconnect between the anxious, clumsy Ruby from this more confident, self-assured one. Immediately, her inner akuma-alarm is going off, and she tries to see if there’s some sort of object on Ruby that would be a dead giveaway.

“Guys, I’m sorry I-”

Ruby - or rather, a  _ second  _ Ruby - runs into the room, just out of breath. What’s more,  _ this  _ Ruby was wearing the same outfit Marinette had caught her in earlier. The whole room falls silent as the three of them all regard the two Rubys, and Marinette silently confirms her theory that Ruby had been akumatized…

“Did you  _ really  _ have to blow my secret so early?” the Ruby with sunglasses sighs, “That’s just like you, to screw everything up for the rest of us.”

“I’m sorry, I- wait, no I’m  _ not _ . Who are  _ you  _ supposed to be? Are you the one who took my phone?”

Marinette frowns, observing the real Ruby’s expression. The more and more she listened to the conversation, the more things appeared to be off. Ruby seemed way too confused for someone who should have been akumatized, as though she weren’t given a proper explanation. She could imagine Ruby accidentally tuning out parts of Hawkmoth’s explanation, but being able to piece enough together on her own to figure it out. 

_ What’s Hawkmoth’s game here _ ?

“You’re so  _ annoying _ . Here I am, ready to fix  _ your  _ problems, and you refuse to go away like a good little girl,” the fake Ruby sighs, “You’re as much of a square as Ladybug.”

Marinette bites her lip, refusing to let a defensive comment slip. Thankfully, Jagged backs her up.

“Hey, Ladybug is a cool kid!” he retorts, “If anything,  _ you’re  _ the one who ain’t it!”

“How  _ dare  _ you!” the fake Ruby shrieks, “I’m  _ leagues  _ above these dweebs!”

_ Even what she’s saying feels less inspired than usual _ , Marinette remarks to herself.  _ Is Hawkmoth having an off day or what? Then again, he  _ did  _ akumatize one baby three times… _

Harumphing, the fake Ruby spins around, transforming her outfit to look akin to that of the real Ruby’s, before grabbing her arm and storming out of the room. “Let’s see if you dweebs can figure out which of us is the real one!”

Jagged immediately starts chasing after the two of them, while Vivica pounds on the door, cuing Penny and Kitty Section to change gears. Marinette uses the distraction to run off toward the bathroom and transform.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've got three more chapters until this arc is finally done!
> 
> I can't believe that in just a couple of days, it'll be the one year anniversary of TOtMiS. I want to thank everyone that's been along for this journey so far! My goal is to have the story done by the end of the year, but more so, I'd like to have it done before season 4 airs. Assuming that there isn't a delay, that should be sometime in the fall of this year.
> 
> Also, I will be finishing this arc before I approach any of the anniversary-related requests. Some of them may have to wait until the story ends, depending on the nature of them (anything that's set in the future, for example, will most likely be after the story is done).


	7. Just Want to Relax II

Peeking her head out the bathroom door, Ladybug retreats back inside when there’s no sign of either the Rubys or Viperion. Staring at her yoyo, she feels compelled to pull out the tiger, pig and ox miraculouses, though she isn’t really sure why. Perhaps it was the odd behavior of the second Ruby earlier, or the fact that she hesitated to even refer to it as an akuma. Akumas didn’t  _ have  _ to take on a radically different form from their normal selves, but it still rubs her the wrong way.

Gently pushing the lid down, Ladybug peeks outside the bathroom door again, and catches Viperion doing the exact same thing from his hiding spot.

“They’re trying to find her,” he explains, “But they’ve been struggling to keep up with her. She’s much more slippery than they’re giving her credit for. ”

“Where did everyone go?”

“They split up. Penny, Vivica and Jagged are searching down on the first floor. Everyone else is still on this floor.”

“Alright, I’m going to call in our backup,” she says, staring down at the three miraculouses. Something about them had been calling out to her, and her instincts regarding them had yet to fail her. “You survey what’s going on with the first floor.”

Splitting up again, she’s quick to draw the three miraculouses, keeping them at the ready.

“I think she went this way!”

“No… she only ever came this way when refilling the coffee pitcher. I think she went to the editing room.”

“But we’re talking about a clone of Ruby here. It might not act  _ exactly  _ like her.”

The three remaining members stand in the hallway, looking at each other in disbelief. All of them are relieved when Ladybug makes her entrance onto the scene.

“Good, the three of you are all here,” she says, pulling out the miraculouses, “With the way things are turning out, I think it’s time you all officially met each other.”

The three of them can’t help but gawk as they study each other’s boxes, putting two and two together.

“Wait,  _ you’re  _ Taureau?” Roses gapes, “That totally makes a lot of sense!”

“And you guys are Princess Piggy and Tigresse Rayé?” Ivan asks.

Juleka nods. “It makes a lot of sense though. Ladybug must have recognized that we work well as a band, so we’d work well as a team.”

“If only Luka were here,” Ivan murmurs, “It’d be cool to team up with him.”

“For all we know, he  _ is  _ a hero,” Juleka retorts, “Certainly, it would explain why he ran off like he did.”

“I’m sure he’ll be back,” Rose says cheerfully, “Besides, if he has his guitar, he can do a read of both Rubys.”

“I’m sure he’ll show up just in the knick of time.”

Thankfully, her tone is flippant, so Ladybug doesn’t actually think Juleka believes that Luka had a secret identity. But she was dangerously toeing the line of coming close to discovering the truth.  _ Someday _ , she thinks to herself,  _ when Hawkmoth is gone and this is all over, we can do a mutual reveal. All the more incentive to take him down. _

“You need to keep each other’s identities a secret,” Ladybug says, changing the subject, “We might have protection now, but we still need to be careful. We can’t afford to let Hawkmoth get any more leverage over us.”

The three of them nod, taking their miraculouses and transforming. Once ready, they meet back up with Viperion, who is waiting for them on the stairs, observing the first floor from a distance.

“The clone is growing more intelligent,” he explains, “Before, she was too cocky and careless about everything around her. She’s been downplaying it a bit more, trying to match Ruby’s demeanor and match her appearance, but every now and then, it wears off and she reverts to normal.”

“Do you know what causes it to happen?”

He shakes his head. “That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out.”

Before they can dwell on the matter for too long, someone shrieks from down the hallway, and the heroes dash off in pursuit. Princess fires up her Sock Launcher, while Tigresse waits to summon up Stealth Mode, and they all creep closer to the scene. Everything is quiet, until a flash of white runs by them. Both Princess and Tigresse are barely able to launch their powers against their opponent, taking the lead and cornering the two Rubys back at the entrance of the studio. At this, she fires up her Lucky Charm, earning herself a pair of gloves.

“C-Come on, guys, we can talk this out,” one of them insists, folding her hands over each other neatly, “I mean, what do we really need  _ five  _ heroes for anyway?”

As much as she hates to admit it, Ladybug did find it weird that three miraculouses had been calling out to her in this instance. It felt more like she was satiating a burning curiosity rather than employing them as a last minute resort. Perhaps she was allowing herself to take comfort at the sight of having multiple allies who also happened to be her friends.

_ Master Fu would know _ , she thinks to herself glumly, swearing that she’ll find a way to speak with him soon. For now, her eyes dart across the room, realizing that she needs to get the gloves to Taureau, somehow.

“Ladybug, I think we have a problem,” Tigresse murmurs in her ear, “When I activated Stealth Mode, I only locked onto  _ one  _ of the Rubys-”

“And I tagged the other one,” Princess says in a slightly louder voice, “We’re going to have problems trying to figure out the real Ruby.”

Ladybug walks in front of the two Rubys, slipping the gloves to Taureau, who catches on to her plan and puts them on. Standing with her arms crossed over her chest, she hums and studies the two figures.

"Alright, no more playing games," Ladybug asserts, "Which one of you is the akuma?"

Of course she knows that the approach isn't going to give her the answers she wants. The two Rubys blanch at this question, sputtering to come up with a response.

"It's _ her _ , Ladybug," the first Ruby says, "She's been dragging me all over the place just to keep up the facade."

"Ladybug, that’s not true!" the second Ruby exclaims, "She’s trying to throw me under the bus!" 

The second Ruby did have a point. That didn't mean that she  _ wasn't _ the clone though. She needed to make the clone make a slip somehow, react in a way that Ruby never would.

Princess seems to have the same idea, so she asks, "When did you first start working here?"

"Just before summer started," they both exclaimed at the same time. Ladybug wonders how the clone could have known such a thing. Either it was a slip of the tongue or they had been paying Ruby close attention. Maybe the clone just knew what the original Ruby was going to say?

"Who is Ruby's celebrity crush?" Tigresse asks quietly.

"H-Hayley Kiyoko," they stammer in unison. Once again, there's no way of being able to tell the difference between the two of them. Thinking back to observations made earlier, Ladybug thinks about how to change gears.

Looking at Viperion, she sighs, "You know, Hawkmoth is losing his touch. Was making a clone the best he could come up with?" 

"I am  _ not _ Hawkmoth's creation!" the clone shouts, before covering her mouth in absolute horror. Ladybug isn't sure what to make of the statement, but for the time being, she cues Taureau to use his power on the clone. It strips away the mirage, reverting her to the outfit she wore earlier. "You won't stop me, Ladybug!" she shouts, looking to run off again.

“Viperion!”

Stopping the clone in her tracks, Viperion is just able to catch her glance, and the clone collapses to the floor. Ladybug is easily able to crush the phone and release the- 

Her eyes widen as she realizes that what’s released isn’t a butterfly, but actually a blue feather. Her mind drifts towards the blue woman that created the moth monster that protected Hawkmoth and Killer Bee. Before she can dwell on it for too long, she uses her yoyo to purify the feather and return everything back to normal.

\--

The interviewer arrives shortly after the affair is resolved, none the wiser about anything that occurred. Everyone does their best to maintain such a facade and not interrupt the flow of the interview. However, not everyone can so easily forget the events that had occurred earlier.

“...she was even  _ dressed _ cooler than me!” Ruby laments, looking down at her coffee, “I mean, she was wearing an outfit I always wanted to wear, but just thought it would look awful on me.”

“Maybe it’s a sign,” Vivica offers, “That you should just say ‘screw it’ and wear it anyway.”

“I guess,” she mumbles, looking down at her feet. “I mean, it’s not like wearing a short skirt with long fringes or anything.”

“I don’t believe anyone wears anything like that outside of music festivals,” Vivica points out, “Unless you’re planning on going to another one sometime soon.”

“I’m hoping the next one I go to is the one you perform in.”

The atmosphere of the room completely shifts, and Marinette doesn’t need to see either of their expressions to see how the other is feeling. She had been thinking of stepping in to see if Ruby needed further intervention, but seeing her cheer up in Vivica’s presence, perhaps it wasn’t as necessary as she thought.

\--

The interview goes over well enough. Ivan doesn’t say too much, and Juleka stumbles over a couple of her words. Rose is the one to really step up to the plate, and there’s no doubt that she’ll be getting plenty of coverage in the article once it comes out. As happy as Marinette and Luka are about how everything turned out at the studio, there’s still some unfinished business left to attend to. 

There’s something nostalgic about choosing to meet on top of the Eiffel Tower. The city at night is like looking down into a field of twinkling stars, or a crowd of adoring fans flashing their cellphones as their favorite musician rocks the stage. One day, she’d like to paint a picture from this height and surprise her parents with it, leaving them forever wondering when she managed to do it.

“Hey,” he says, landing beside her, “This is about the feather earlier?”

She nods, staring out over the city. “According to Tikki, it’s called an amok, and it creates a sentimonster. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen one, but I have to wonder what prompted one to come out now. The first time we saw one, it came to defend Hawkmoth and allowed him to escape. The second time was with Miracle Queen using it to…”

Just thinking of the memory causes her lip to tremble, and she bites it on reflex. Viperion settles next to her, allowing her to rest her head against his shoulder.

“They’re testing what they’re capable of doing with the miraculous,” she finally concludes, “They want to catch us off guard and finish what they’ve started.”

“Those last two times though, actual monsters were created,” Viperion comments, “I didn’t realize it would be able to copy someone else.”

There was a  _ lot  _ they didn’t realize, though, and she can’t help but be bitter at the thought. While Hawkmoth continued to amp up his game, they were only getting tidbits of information here and there, and maybe a couple of power-ups to keep them from getting completely steamrolled. Popping open her yoyo, she pulls up the recovered footage and begins to study it once again.

“I’m hoping we can find some kind of clue with what we found, but I can only see it when I’m transformed. If I tried to play it on a device while in civilian mode, I could be tracked down.”

“We know those monsters were made by that blue woman,” Viperion points out, “We saw her when Miracle Queen attacked.”

“Which leads me to wonder… whether Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth or just an accomplice, there’s a good chance that the blue woman is connected to the both of them. My guess is that the blue woman is someone familiar with Gabriel Agreste. He could be working to cover for her… But that could still leave a variety of women as potential candidates for creating the amoks.”

Which means that they were still at square one. Maybe even less than that, since all they had were hunches. What they really needed was someone on the inside, someone that would be able to get into the mansion and investigate without question.

Felix immediately comes to mind, and she hates herself for even thinking it. They still don’t know for sure if they can trust him, could they really afford to risk having him sneak around in the Agreste mansion?

“You have an idea, but you don’t like it?” he muses.

“There’s a certain someone I was thinking of enlisting help from,” she hums, “But I need a read on him. I need to know if we can trust him to do the right thing.”

“Consider it done. Tell me, who do you need a read of?”

And so, they spend the rest of the evening planning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The One to Make It Stay is officially a year old as of last week! I'm going to be doing some requests and special chapters following this arc, including the last interlude. It won't be considered canon to the main story, but it'll be fun to write, that's for sure! Anyway, thanks to everyone who has been along for the ride so far! Hopefully, the full story will be done before the next season starts up, if not, by the end of the year.
> 
> Anyway, the peacock miraculous has made a return, but there's a different user in charge (not that Marinette or Luka know that). There are a couple of possible candidates, which I doubt will be difficult to guess. They will be revealed in an interlude following the last two chapters of this arc. Who do you guys think it's going to be?
> 
> Also, just for fun, I wrote out some headcanons for potential ending cards. I haven't done any for ABoES yet, but that'll also be coming once the arc is complete. Please check it out here: https://xxxsaltybugxxx.tumblr.com/post/614700644922785792/the-one-to-make-it-stay-ending-cards-scbb-tow
> 
> Again, thanks to everyone for reading!


	8. Just Want to Be Popular I

Following the incident with Rue-Be (as she decided to coin it), Marinette spends the weekend reviewing the footage with Luka, and planning their confrontation with Felix for Monday. Luka would come to her school near the end of the day, sneak a peek at Felix, and try to determine as discreetly as possible whether or not he was someone that they could trust.

Upon arriving to Mendeleiev’s class that morning, however, fate had other plans. Namely, Felix hadn’t shown up and wasn’t likely to that day. Apparently, some sort of family emergency came up, and even Adrien wasn’t there.

_ I hope it has nothing to do with Hawkmoth _ , she thinks to herself glumly. Supposing her assumptions were true, what if Hawkmoth took the opportunity to offer up Plagg to Felix, in exchange for her miraculous? What if he offered up information about the exclusive Guardians Marianne kept a secret? Even if Hawkmoth knew next to nothing, his offer would still be tempting to a curious Felix.

“Marinette, are you worrying over student elections?” Rose asks, patting her shoulder, “I’m sure you’ll do great!”

Oh.  _ That _ . Despite being announced the previous week, Marinette paid little attention to it. Too many other issues preoccupied her mind, including her interview with the Gauguin Institute that was less than two months away now.

“It’s not that,” she says, laughing, “I’m not even running this year.”

Rose’s eyes bulge, clearly not believing what she just heard. “You’re  _ not _ ?”

“Well, yeah. Last year, I ran trying to keep Chloe from holding more power over everyone else. I stayed because I believed the work was worth doing and I thought I could handle it,” she explains, “But it’s not the same this year. I have other things going on now, and I just can’t handle it the same.”

“That’s a shame,” Rose admits, “But you did run yourself ragged a bit last year. Besides, I’d rather have you spend more time with us at the studio than be stuck at school.”

“I’m sure others in our class will be willing to run anyway,” Juleka points out, “And none of them will be Chloe, so we don’t have to worry about that.”

“I don’t even think she’s here anyway,” Ivan points out, “I heard Sabrina freaking out about running her campaign while Chloe was spending time with her mom.”

“What, she doesn’t even have the decency to show up or even video call?” Juleka scoffs, “I don’t even think she really cares if she wins or loses now. She’s just doing it because she thinks she has to.”

Old habits  _ did  _ die hard, she supposes. And if that was the case, she wasn’t sure if there would be any hope for Chloe going forward. Not that she’d ever return the bee to her, but Marinette still can’t help but hope that after everything with Miracle Queen, Chloe would at least reconsider changing  _ something  _ in her life.

Shaking the thought away, she walks into class, Rose and Juleka at her side. So long as Chloe is on the sidelines, she is not a concern. Marinette doesn’t have to share a class with her, and so long as Chloe doesn’t go out of her way to akumatize anyone, there’s no reason to give any more thought to her.

Kagami smiles as Marinette settles into her seat, putting away her books. It seems that the drama from last week has worn off, since Marinette doesn’t detect any sign of concern or worry on her face. Without even having to ask, Kagami explains, “I was able to work things out with my mom.”

“That’s great,” Marinette exclaims, “Was she mad at-”

“She’s still worried about the people I’m friends with,” Kagami continues, “Mr. Agreste has been attempting to patch things up with her. He’s supposed to be one of the headlining designers for the Tsurugi Textile Fashion Show, and they don’t want to back out of their agreement now. But she still doesn’t want me associating with Adrien, or even…” she looks over her shoulder, only to find no one. Still, she whispers in a low voice, “Felix.” 

_ Ah, so he’s already managed to get on Kagami’s bad side _ , she thinks to herself.  _ I don’t imagine it’d work out well if they were teammates _ . “Did something happen with him?”

“He just tried to stick his nose where he shouldn’t,” she sighs, still staring at his spot like she didn’t really believe that he was absent, “Got a bit too personal asking about my relationship with Adrien. I’m not sure which one of us he was more curious about.”

Marinette is just as stumped. Knowing Felix, it could have been anything. For now, she settles in her seat, and continues to listen to Kagami speak.

“I’ve been thinking… I’d like to run as class deputy.”

This catches her by surprise. “Oh, really? Who are you running with?” 

“Well, Colette said she was looking for someone to add to her ticket,” Kagami explains, “It seems that Aurore and Mirielle are both busy with other matters. And my mother agreed to give me a bit more free time this year. I figured it would be best spent on something like this.”

“That’s a great idea. I’m sure you’ll do well,” Marinette says with a wink, “I can’t wait to see who else is running.”

They don’t have to wait long to find out. When Ms. Mendeleiev enters the class, she immediately begins with asking those running for the position to come up and present their campaigns. Further campaigning is to be done after school, with now being the time to present yourself. Both Colette and Wayhem take their places up at the front, give their speeches and take their seats, allowing class to resume as normal..

\--

It’s the first time that year that Marinette will be eating in the cafeteria. She wasn’t really worried about feeling comfortable there, since she had her friends now. However, Rose, Juleka and Ivan hadn’t really talked to Alya prior to the summer, and she was sure there would be some tension if they chose to all eat together. And Kagami had her reputation as the school’s Ice Queen to disprove as well.

As she suspects, when all five of them settle down at the table with Marinette, there’s an awkward pause, with Rose asking a few ice-breaking questions to chip away at the tension.  _ Leave it to the face of Kitty Section to be the one to fix things _ , Marinette thinks to herself.

“I want to apologize,” Alya finally says, “For not believing you, Rose. About what you said about Prince Ali.”

“Thank you,” she says, without missing a beat, “I accept your apology.”

“But I didn’t finish-”

“ _ I accept  _ your apology,” Rose repeats, giving Alya a look that says, “You don’t need to say anything else, so please don’t bother.” When Alya sees this, she simply nods and allows the conversation to move on. Thankfully, Nino arrives as well, unaware of the conversation that took place. “Hey Nino. Who ended up campaigning for your class representative this year?”

“Hey guys,” he says, putting his stuff down. “We got a few contenders this year. Alix and Kim are locked in a pretty fierce rivalry.”

“I think she’s still miffed about the Lila stuff,” Alya points out, “Although Kim doesn’t seem to really care about it anymore. He’s too busy with swimming to be of much help to her, and I think he’s worried about losing his girlfriend if he spends too much time with Lila.”

“And then there’s Chloe,” Nino adds, “I guess some things never change.”

“Some nerve Chloe has,” Alya retorts, “She didn’t even bother showing up to class to run her campaign.  _ Sabrina  _ had to do it for her. She wasn’t even sick like Lila supposedly is. And she’s at least running for class deputy, not class rep.”

“Oh, so that  _ was  _ true,” Ivan grumbles.

“Wait,  _ Lila  _ is running for class deputy?” Marinette asks, “Who decided they wanted to share the ticket with her?”

“You know Fleur?”

“The quiet girl whose family runs the boutique not far from Le Grand Paris?”

“Exactly,” Alya says, “It seems that the two of them are locker buddies and got to talking to each other. I guess Fleur is either lonely, didn’t get the memo about Lila or doesn’t have high standards for friends, since she doesn’t seem to have any problems with her. It probably helps that they’re locker neighbors.”

Marinette frowns. She’s not very familiar with the girl, other than knowing her in passing. One thing she did know was that Fleur had been in a couple of friend groups throughout the years, but she never stayed with them for very long. Things were likely worse now that a decent chunk of the student population transferred out to neighboring schools, leaving her with a limited pool of people to befriend.

“Sounds like quite the competition,” Kagami remarks, taking a bite of her food.

“I’m glad we don’t have to be there to witness all of that,” Rose says, leaning back in her chair, “Hopefully, Chloe doesn’t try to blackmail everyone else like she did last year.”

“Alix won’t back down even if Chloe did,” Juleka points out, “And I think Kim more likely wants to show up Alix than to bow down to Chloe.”

“I hope you get Alix,” Ivan comments, “She’s your best bet.”

“ _ Hey, you, don’t vote Alix! If you do, you’ll earn our malice _ !”

The entire group looks to each other, wondering who could have possibly chanted something like that. It seems like everyone is in complete disbelief as to what they just heard, wondering if they shared a fever dream.

“ _ Fleur, Fleur, she’s the one! She won’t be outdone!” _

At that moment, a squad of cheerleaders enter the cafeteria, all of them blonde and in the image of Fleur, although their skin takes a bluish tint. Their hair is all pulled back into curly ponytails, and they wear a white long sleeve top and plaited blue and white skorts, falling just above the knees. 

“ _ Here we are, just for you! We’re School Spirit, ready to pursue! What, you ask? Why, class represent, that’s our task!” _

“Ooh, that was definitely forced,” Juleka sighs, “And painful to listen to.”

“I don’t think rhyming is one of Hawkmoth’s specialities,” Alya remarks, “Although to be fair, a lot of things don’t seem like his specialty.”

Marinette is about to remark something along similar lines, when she notices that a few of the cheerleaders are carrying Fleur on a throne, as though she were their Queen. Her expression is a cross between overwhelmed and in absolute love with all of the sudden attention. But otherwise, she looks completely normal.

_ Wait. Could it be the work of an amok again? _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're almost at the end of this arc! One more chapter, and then we'll get the interlude revealing who the new peacock holder is! So far, the guesses have been Lila, Chloe, Adrien, Tomoe and Audrey. I love hearing all of your predictions, so please keep them coming!
> 
> After all of that, I'll be doing the anniversary collection, which I'm super excited for. Just as a heads up, it's not going to be canon to the main storyline. Put simply, they're going to be like bonus episodes or AUs (yes, I know they're an AU of an AU).


	9. Just Want to Be Popular II

The first thing she does is send Luka a text, warning him of the latest villain. However, as she anticipates, he isn’t able to respond immediately, and when he does, he warns her that it might take him some time to get over there, since he’s in the middle of class. 

_ ‘I’ve got plenty of back-up here. I’ll let you know if there’s a problem.’ _ She writes back, keeping the spare miraculouses at the ready. She won’t be needing everyone today, she thinks, but she needs to watch School Spirit’s moves before coming to that conclusion.

“ _ There they are! That’s our perp! Take his energy and make him a derp!” _

Immediately realizing that they’re talking about Ivan, Marinette’s entire table ran out of the cafeteria, dragging Ivan along with them. Three of the cheerleaders are hot on their tail, and it seems like every corner that they turn, there’s another cheerleader waiting to come out.

“Guys, you might be better off just leaving me,” Ivan grunts, “They’re not gonna stop until they get me.”

“ _ No  _ way,” Juleka retorts, “We don’t leave bandmates behind.”

“Perhaps we ought to split up though,” Kagami considers, “And reconvene at a safer location, at least until Ladybug arrives.”

“Why is she even after Ivan in the first place?” Rose asks, “All he did was suggest that people vote for Alix.”

“Remember her chant though?” Marinette points out, “She might be trying to take out anyone who she deems a threat to her campaign, not just competitors.”

“So we just can’t say anything else about the election,” Alya says, “Especially not me, since she wants my vote.”

She studies Alya carefully, a plan starting to form in her mind. But the first thing she needs to do is find somewhere private to transform into. 

“I’m going to go and scout out the school,” Marinette decides, “The rest of you should split up into smaller groups and then hide out until help comes.”

“But Marinette, it’s dangerous to go alone,” Nino says. Realizing what he just said, he laughs before clearing his throat. “Er, I mean, it’s safer in numbers?”

“But if we have too many numbers, we’ll also be easier to track,” Juleka points out, “It’s easy to see a pack of seven then smaller groups of two, three or four.”

“Plus, as a former class rep,” Marinette argues, “I’ve been to places in the school that other students aren’t normally allowed. I’ll have a better chance of hiding out.”

She can tell from the expressions on everyone else’s faces, that none of them like this idea. In a lot of ways, it  _ does  _ feel like she’s sacrificing herself for the greater good, but not quite in the way that they would think.

_ Somedays, it’d be easier if they just knew the truth.  _

“Listen, the moment I think I’m in danger, I’ll send you a group text,” she says, pulling out her phone and putting it on silent, “But we don’t have any more time to argue about this.”

They all look to each other with defeated glances. Finally, Alya sighs, “Alright. But you  _ better  _ stay safe. I’m not going to be happy if School Spirit gets to you.”

“Trust me, I’ll be okay.”

\--

Finding the spot to transform is the easy part. The harder part is trying to determine who she wants to bring back out into the field. The fox, pig and ox all call out to her, but nothing comes from the turtle or tiger.  _ That’s strange. That’s the first time they haven’t called out to me in pairs. It’ll be weird not having them work alongside us...  _

For now, she puts the thought aside. She needs to find Alya first to put her plan into motion. If she was right, Alya ran off and went into hiding with Nino, which meant she wouldn’t have to be revealing any more identities, much to her relief.

“I need Rena Rouge,” she explains to the couple, who sit in the corner of the room, out of sight from any interlopers, “And I’m also going to need Alya.”

“How is that going to work?” Nino asks, “She can’t be in- Oh, wait.”

Alya smirks, putting on the necklace and fixing her hair. “Did you forget about my powers?”

“I guess I did,” Nino chuckles, “It’s weird to think that we even have powers.”

Ladybug can’t help but laugh in agreement, giving Alya a moment to transform before turning to Nino to give directions. “I’m going to need  _ your  _ help getting some footage of School Spirit. My guess is that your classmate wasn’t actually akumatized, but rather, one of her objects was possessed by something called an amok.”

“What’s the diff?” Nino asks, “Aren’t we still fighting a supervillain?”

“Not quite. If we’re dealing with an amok, then we’re dealing with a sentimonster, a sentient creature made by Hawkmoth’s ally.”

“Wait, a sentient creature? Like that moth thing that appeared on Hero’s Day?”

“Basically. Which means we have two supervillains at the very least to figure out. Anyway, Nino, can you handle filming School Spirit?”

“Yeah, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Ladybug, if you don’t mind,” Rena Rouge says, “I’d like to put his footage on the Ladyblog. We can properly explain about the amoks and sentimonsters so that people can keep an eye out.”

“That’s a good idea,” she nods, “I’ll film a video with you explaining them as well. We need to be careful about the delivery though. Some people might get really scared if we aren’t careful.”

And they really didn’t need people getting akumatized over hearing about another threat to the city. The loss of the cat miraculous was devastating enough, with quite a few people believing it was only a matter of time before Hawkmoth claimed the ladybug miraculous. News of another supervillain on the scene would only leave them further convinced of their beliefs.

“Stay out of view until I get back. I have two more people I need to get.”

The first place she thinks to look is the room for the art club, and she’s right on the money when she discovers them. The doors are barricaded, so they have to move stuff aside to allow her in through the door, pushing it all back once she’s done. However, Kagami is also settled inside along with them, meaning that she’s going to have to think of a distraction to keep her from learning the identities.

“Are you guys okay?” Ladybug asks, pulling them into a group huddle, “You all look a bit out of it.”

“Those cheerleaders chased us all around school,” Rose explains, sitting on her knees, “We barely even got to eat lunch when they attacked.”

_ All the more reason to resolve this quickly _ , she thinks to herself bitterly, before shaking the thought away. Quickly would be ideal, but in this case, she also needs to be smart, and she needs to allow Nino to get the proper footage he needs. “Sorry to hear that. But I hope you guys are hungry for justice.”

The four look at each other in confusion. She thought she had the timing of the comment right, but maybe it sounded better in her head. 

“I have a plan, if you guys are okay with helping,” she says turning to Kagami and Juleka, “I need one of you to bring School Spirit back to the cafeteria. And then I need another one of you to distract the cheerleaders. Maybe get them to all do a routine or something.”

“I’ll round them up,” Kagami says, “I could use the exercise.”

“And I’ll take care of the other thing,” Juleka mumbles, “I guess I could wait in the cafeteria or something?”

“Yes, go ahead. I’ll make sure Rena gives you some back up, and then catch up with you in a bit,” she says, gesturing to go out the door. Juleka gives a confused look back at Ladybug, before following Kagami out. When they’re gone, she hands over the pig and ox to Rose and Ivan respectively. “We have a bit of a different arrangement today, but we’re dealing with what seems to be another sentimonster.”

“You mean like Rue-be?” Rose asks.

“Something like that. Now, come on, we have to get going.”

Once they’ve finished transforming, Ladybug goes back to the locker room to get the team together. After whispering a plan to Rena, she nods her head, taking Nino outside with her. She uses her mirage to summon a bunch of fake Alyas, all of them running behind Kagami, giving her some space from the 

Summoning her Lucky Charm, a net drops into her arms.  _ Fairly straightforward today, huh? The world must have decided to give me a break. _

The net easily spreads down on the floor, with the rope hiding between the legs of the chairs and tables. Nino crouches down underneath one of them, still holding the phone as he keeps it pointed toward the door, ready to film whatever came next.

Kagami is a great decoy, easily able to run inside the cafeteria and herd in School Spirit. Some of the fake Alyas are still behind her, but once they all make it inside, some of them are tagged by School Spirit, collapsing before turning into thin air.

_ It looks like some of her mirages are turning a bit more corporeal. She might be getting a boost of power soon _ , Ladybug thinks to herself.

“H-Hey,” Juleka says, stepping up to them, allowing Kagami to escape, “I-I heard you guys were pretty good at cheering. M-Maybe if you show us, you c-could convince my friends to vote for you.”

One look at Juleka is all Ladybug needs to know that she isn’t convinced in her own performance. For a moment, all of the cheerleaders stare at either her or themselves, trying to come to a decision. However, when they all share a collective smile, Ladybug knows that it’s game over for them.

“ _ Sure!” _

“ _ Of course!” _

“ _ Let’s go everyone!” _

The cheerleaders all spread out across the net, whether they realize it or not. Kagami is long forgotten, able to join Nino under the table in preparing to pull the rope when the time came for it.

“ _ Ready girls _ ?”

“We know we’re ready!” Ladybug calls, gesturing to Nino and Kagami to pull the rope. All of the cheerleaders gasp as they’re hoisted off the ground, caught in the net.

“You’re up, Taureau!”

“Full Throttle!” 

Upon impact almost all of the cheerleaders except one disappear into thin air.

“Now, Princess Piggy!”

The last cheerleader is disgusted when Mud Bomb hits her, not quick to see that it highlights a cellphone sitting on the waistband of her skirt. Ladybug is quick to throw her yoyo and steal it.

“ _ Oh no, you can’t do this! Man, this plan was a miss!” _

Sighing at the sounds of her cheering, she throws the phone to the ground, breaking it and freeing the feather. Quick to capture it, she casts Miraculous Ladybug, and all of the knocked over chairs and tables return to normal. The last cheerleader disappears, and Fleur’s phone is returned into her hands, good as new.

Just as she suspects, Fleur doesn’t look like the least bit deterred or confused by what happened. More than anything, she seems to be somewhat relieved that the whole ordeal is over, and perhaps the slightest bit sad that things got so out of hand. 

“Now if only all these attacks could stop happening around lunchtime,” Ladybug mumbles under her breath, looking for a spot to change back.

\--

“What a day,” Marinette sighs, watching as everyone strolls out of school, and heads off in various directions. Everything involving School Spirit left her exhausted, and there was still the matter of meeting up with Alya to do the video for the Ladybug. 

But that would have to wait. The after school campaigns are to begin soon, and Luka is about to meet her, despite not being able to get reconnaissance on Felix. 

“I wouldn’t know, I wasn’t here to experience it.”

She can’t help but stumble back a bit, just catching herself from falling on the steps. Somehow, Felix managed to get inside the school building without her noticing, which thankfully meant Operation: Reconnaissance was back on, at the cost of her being caught off-guard. 

“I-I... W-What are you doing here?”

“Collecting my notes and homework that I missed,” he explains, not even batting an eye at her being caught off-guard. “Adrien’s too.”

“How come he’s not with you?” 

“He didn’t  _ feel  _ like coming in to get his own work,” Felix says with a roll of his eyes, “He’s out there in the limo, trying to look inconspicuous.”

She follows his gaze to the Gorilla, who’s standing in front of the car, ready to open the door for Felix. The windows are too tinted to make out a facial expression, but she can see just a trace of Adrien’s golden hair from the other side.

“Why didn’t he want to go in with you?”

“Ah, what a story that is. But I think it’s one you're familiar with,” he says, folding his arms over his chest, “It seems that poor Adrien isn’t too popular these days. He had a couple of friends last year, but for  _ some  _ reason, they haven’t been as close lately. I have no doubt that my uncle has a hand in part of that, but there’s something more to it than that.”

Frowning, she also crosses her hands over her chest. “Are you accusing me of something?”

“Oh, nothing like that. But I know that the two of you were close up until the summer. He has you in the contacts of his phone, but his most recent message to you was all the way back in April. That’s almost  _ half a year ago _ . And then, when I mentioned your friends’ livestream to him, he seemed convinced that you told them to say that to make our poor friend Lila look bad,” he says, clucking his tongue, “And yet, when I asked him if Lila was a liar, he had no choice but to admit to it.”

“And…? What do you want me to say? That she’s not? Because she  _ is  _ a liar.”

“Oh, of course not. I think that’s pretty obvious. But she’s not  _ just  _ a liar, is she? She almost akumatized you after all.”

Raising an eyebrow, she takes a small step back, so that she’s standing sideface. For some reason, the impulse to kick him should he come closer runs through her mind, and she can’t help but feel a bit bad about it. Felix was…  _ unnerving _ , but he had yet to actually  _ threaten  _ her. Still, 

_ If he  _ does  _ turn out to be a decent guy, someone needs to have a serious conversation with him about the way he approaches people _ , she thinks to herself.

“And?”

“ _ And _ ? There’s clearly more to the story. And my guess is that either Adrien  _ does  _ know and chose to side with Lila, despite the fact that she clearly makes him miserable. Or he  _ doesn’t  _ know because you decided not to tell him.”

Her hands begin to shake.  _ Walk away. It’s not worth it. _

“Why are you so interested in this in the first place?”

“Can’t a guy be curious about his  _ favorite _ cousin’s social life? Especially when it involves one of the most interesting, popular girls at school? Who also happens to know my Grand-Merè?”

They lock eyes for a moment. He doesn’t take a step closer or anything, but the instinct to kick him is still there. If Tikki weren’t sitting in her pocket, clinging to her like no tomorrow, she might have done so already, too frightened to control herself.

“I have my theories about you, Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” he says in a low voice, “Like that you were the one to make my Grand-Merè’s special box. One that has secrets. And what’s more? You know those secrets.”

She bites back her tongue, and tries to silence her shaking.  _ Think about Tikki. Think about Master Fu. You’ve managed to get around suspicions before, you can do it again. _

A few notes from a guitar break the conversation up, and she can’t help the little sigh that escapes from her. She recognizes the tune - a Justin Timberlake song - and doesn’t need to look back to realize that it’s Luka.

_ You might not have made it to the fight, but you still came to my rescue _ . 

“Ah, so you’re the infamous Luka Couffaine,” Felix says in a huffy voice, more irritated than intrigued. 

Luka shrugs, playing a few more chords of the song (his favorite one, she realizes). “I’ve heard quite a bit about you too. But I guess I shouldn’t expect any less from the new rich kid.”

For a moment, the two boys quietly regard each other. Felix’s gaze has an icy tint to it, like he’s threatening to freeze anyone in place if they look at him for too long. Luka stands perfectly still, but isn’t the least perturbed by his demeanor. She’s itching to know just what Luka is seeing.

“I see. I didn’t realize I made such an impact on the student body here.”

_ That’s a lie if I ever heard one _ .  _ He could rival Lila. _

“Then again,” he murmurs, “I suppose it doesn’t take much.”

Marinette isn’t sure how to take the comment, and Luka doesn’t look like he has a clue either. An expression rather fitting of Felix settles on his face - smugness. There’s something about that brief smirk, as though he created the world’s most unsolvable riddle on the spot and confounded them, that puts her on edge. Manon needed to move over as the Puppeteer, because Felix clearly knew how to pull strings and make his toys dance.

“Don’t hold it against them,” Luka says, in a tone that she can’t determine if it’s meant to be gentle or warning, “They’ve been through a lot in the past year. It’s enough to make them paranoid.”

There’s a small twitching of his lips, as if he means to say something. But he holds his tongue, continuing his staring contest with Luka. Whatever he’s thinking, he’s a million light years away with no way of coming close to reaching his orbit. Finally, he says, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

Luka gives a nod, having settled the guitar back into his case, and takes her hand. “Well, if you don’t mind, we’ve got some work to do at the studio, so we’ll be heading out now. Enjoy the rest of your day.”

“I will.”

Walking away from the school, it’s only when they’re two blocks away that Marinette decides to break the silence.

“That was totally weird.”

Luka nods, humming. “I didn’t need to read him to know that.”

“It’s like he just came out of nowhere. I don’t know if he meant to startle me or if he just wasn’t paying attention,” she continues, “Hopefully your reading gave us some clearer answers.”

“Well…”

“Well?” 

“His song isn’t one that I could play on Ol’ Reliable here,” he says, staring at his case, “It’s more like you need to load up a bunch of YouTube videos and play them all at once.”

“I’m assuming that’s not a good thing?”

He frowns, seriously studying his guitar. His face scrunches up like a raisin, a look indicating that he might have a headache. “I’m not really sure what it means. Whatever is going on with him, it’s seriously messing with him. It’s not that he’s  _ impossible  _ to read or anything, I just… can’t figure him out.”

“ _ Yet _ ,” Marinette adds, “You can’t figure him out  _ yet _ . But for now, that plan is going to have to sit on the backburner.” After all, there was still one  _ other  _ person that might have been willing to do some undercover work for them. “Let’s meet with Marianne and Fu and see if we can come up with a new plan.”

She feels a gentle squeeze, and looking up at him, she can tell there’s some worry floating in his head. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be there today.”

“Don’t apologize,” she says, returning the squeeze, “I had a feeling that at this point in the game, things weren’t going to be so easy anymore. This is no longer a two person job, Luka. Hopefully, Fu and Marianne will agree too. And by the way?”

“What?”

“Thanks for the save back there.”

“Anytime.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The JT song Luka plays is "Like I Love You" btw.
> 
> Well, we have one more interlude before this arc is officially complete, which will reveal our new Peacock holder. I've been really excited to see everyone's takes on who they are (which tbh, they're pretty obvious, but I like drama dammit), so please keep them coming!
> 
> I think the next arc will be bringing us into the endgame, with an epilogue to follow, but I'm not 100% sure yet. Once I get the anniversary bonus out, and the outline for the next arc going, I'll have a better idea. Until then, see you guys and happy speculating ;)

**Author's Note:**

> Here we are with the Back to School arc in full swing. If you guys want a sneak peek of what the new class lineups will look like, here's my post for it: https://xxxsaltybugxxx.tumblr.com/post/190350490949/a-bottle-of-exquisite-stuff-class-set-up-reveal
> 
> We all thought we were done with Lila, but nope. She's coming back, and who knows what she's up to. There's also Chloe to contend with, and that mysterious great-grandson of Marianne's. This will be an interesting year, that's for sure.


End file.
